Hostilities
by blacksand1
Summary: Sequelfic to Alliances; The Zeppelin Incident is two years dead but another war is on the world's doorstep. Hellsing and Iscariot must defend themselves once more, ready or not. Here there be monsters. Rated for violence and OCs.
1. Back in Black

**WARNING TO NEW READERS: YOU ABSOLUTELY **_**MUST **_**HAVE READ 'ALLIANCES' TO UNDERSTAND WHAT IS GOING ON IN HOSTILITIES.**

**Fandom:** Hellsing, Twilight- screw it, EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN.

**Title:** Hostilities _or_ Alliances 2: Electric Boogaloo

**Rating:** T

**Pairing(s):** AxS, ExI, more than I can think to list

**Genre:** Adventure, Drama, Romance, Humor

**Warning(s):** Blood, violence, gore, sexual themes, language, OOC, OC's

**Dedicated:** Master of the Boot, my mentor in all things fanfiction who has helped me become the writer I am now.

**Summary:** It's been two years, nearly three- London is only partially rebuilt, the vampire queen She is on the loose, dens of false vampires have been popping up around the world, Germany is experiencing a werewolf epidemic, Seras and Pip are traveling the world in search of a necromancer/witch/Unseelie fae, Rip Van Winkle is sporting a fedora, and Alucard watches My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. We're in for quite a ride.

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing except for the plot and all OCs.

**Number of Words: **5,192

**Date Started (chapter):** 9/12/11

**Date Completed (chapter):** 9/14/11

**Author Notes:** I've been telling myself over and over that I need to focus on ReGenesis, but yesterday I decided that I can't just work on one story, and this has been eating at me ever since I finished Alliances. SOOOOOOO, we're starting a brand new adventure~! Just a few notes before we begin: every chapter will be named after a song (some obvious, some not), the system I had of stating the date, year, location and time will be replaced with just stating the date and the general location, and the system of 'parts' that I had won't be used anymore. SO, here we go~! Also, remember this fact for all the foreign characters (mostly the German ones): If they're speaking with an accent, that means they're speaking English, but if they're NOT speaking with an accent, it means they're speaking their native language.

**Chapter I - Back in Black**

**September 2nd, England**

Rain was coming down in sheets, drenching every inch of Manchester and forcing many of the city's inhabitants either inside or under umbrellas. The air was cold and the night _would _have been darker than usual if not for the lights from every window and every street lamp shining through the rain. Most of the humans were apathetic towards the situation- after all, most of them had lived in England all of their lives and were used to the rain.

One vampiress, however, was pouting about it as she stepped out of a jazz bar in the Northern Quarter.

Her hair was long, dark, curlier than you could possibly imagine, and clashed horribly with her nearly white skin that tried its damnedest to glitter whenever she walked past a lit window. She had bright red eyes (something she normally _would _cover up if it weren't so damn easy to mistake her for an albino dying their hair) and wore all black- black flak jacket, black tank top, black pants, black boots, black _everything_. Well, her flak jacket _would _count if not for the black and red coat of arms on the left breast, and the word written just above it in white: _Hellsing_.

"Damn it, it started raining while we were in there," Erin Sorrel remarked to nobody in particular as she made her way down the street. Well, it would _appear _like she was talking to nobody in particular, but if you looked from the corner of your eye you would see that she was _definitely _talking to someone. Someone who happened to be transparent and floating a half-foot off the ground, but someone nonetheless.

Jan Valentine rolled his eyes at Erin's statement; "Yeah, it rained. It does that a whole fuckin' lot in this country."

Erin just smirked and replied, "Jan, you're forgetting that I grew up in sunny California. Rain all the time is still not something I'm used to. Now, where should we go next?"

Jan grimaced; "_Not _to another fuckin' jazz club. You know I hate that shit."

"Shut up, jazz is classy. … Oh, I know! We should go to the gay village!" Erin had to try very hard not to giggle when her ghostly boyfriend looked at her in what could only be described as abject horror.

"Woman, you'd better not be serious. You're _not _going to convince me to hang around a bunch of fuckin' fags!"

"Oh, we should ask Integra if we can stay for a few days," Erin remarked, "I hear the gay pride parade is gonna be soon-" The vampiress could not contain herself at this newest look of terror on Jan's face and burst out laughing, nearly doubling over and causing Jan to glare at her.

"Why?" Jan questioned simply as Erin regained her composure and wiped an imaginary tear from her eye.

Erin just gave him a brilliant smile; "Because I love you, and I express my love by teasing you to hell and back." Jan rolled his eyes, but he put a transparent arm around her shoulders anyways. This just made Erin's smile even brighter.

"But really, we should stay a few more days," Erin remarked, the rain forgotten and her eyes bright with enthusiasm. "This place is _huge_, and there's so much to see! I can't believe we haven't had a mission here yet, you'd think there'd be more vampire activity here with this many people."

Before Jan could say anything in return, a haggard looking man with blood on his face came pushing through the crowded sidewalks, running fast enough to knock Erin slightly off balance when he brushed past her. Jan just glared at him and shouted a few expletives his way, but Erin furrowed her brow and sniffed the air.

"That guy smells like vampire," Erin muttered, "But he smells weird… Kind of like a plastic plant, if that makes any sense."

Jan just grinned; "What're we waiting for? We were sent to kill vampires, baby."

Erin grinned as well; "You're right… Oi! You!" The haggard man immediately looked over his shoulder, and his eyes widened in terror when he saw Erin pushing her way through the crowd, eyes alight with bloodlust. Immediately he sped up, running through the crowd double time; that didn't deter Erin one single bit. She plowed through the crowd after him, pulling out both P90s from her flak jacket and looking for a clear shot- she was already not one of Integra's favorite operatives, she didn't need to make it worse by killing civilians. When they turned the corner, Erin finally saw her opening. It was only there for a split second, but Erin's reflexes were fast enough to catch it; she raised the gun and pulled the trigger, her bullet going straight through the man's shoulder. He let out a cry of pain and immediately swerved into an alleyway, finding the strength to push a dumpster between himself and his pursuer.

Erin scoffed at the dumpster and vaulted right over it- when she landed on the other side, the man was nowhere in to be seen, but despite the rain his scent was clear. Erin followed it out of the other side of the alleyway, and caught sight of the vampire doubled in pain and supporting himself with the nearest wall.

"Got ya, you basta-" Erin began, but she was promptly cut off by the man vomiting nearly a bucket of blood onto the concrete. Immediately she doubled back, eyes wide in shock as the man continued wretching up his thick, dark blood; not even the rain could wash it out of the ground. As he continued to heave, the man's eyes started to leak blood as his irises faded from a garishly bright red to a muddy brown; his eyes grew increasingly bloodshot, until the sclera were almost red. He heaved one last time before falling face down to the ground, limp and lifeless.

Erin just stared at the corpse for a moment or two- she'd seen some fucked up shit while working for Hellsing, but this was a whole new brand of fucked up. Carefully, she made her way to the man's body, and as soon as she was about a foot away she was hit with the distinctive smell of a human corpse.

"What the hell…?" Erin muttered. She sniffed the air again, just to make sure her nose wasn't deceiving her. When the scent came back positive as human, Erin retraced the scent trail back to the mouth of the alleyway.

Jan raised an eyebrow as he watched her pace back and forth, sniffing the air like a bloodhound; "What's that nose of yours tellin' you?"

"It's telling me that this guy ran here as a vampire, but turned into a human as he died," Erin replied, running a hand through her thoroughly soaked hair. Jan just stared at her, eyebrow still raised but this time in confusion.

Erin sighed and explained, "His scent trail starts gradually changing from vampire to human as he gets closer and closer to where he died. And his corpse smells like a human corpse, not a vampire corpse. And yes, they _do _smell different."

"… How the _fuck _are we going to explain this to Big Red?" Jan wondered.

"I'd say you already explained it to me." Erin and Jan's hearts leapt up into their throat, and after sharing an uncomfortable look, the couple slowly turned around. There stood Alucard in his red-coated glory, his customary grin dead and gone. He stalked up to the corpse, silently investigating it while Jan and Erin continued to look on uncomfortably.

After a few minutes, he spoke once more; "The other soldiers reported similar phenomena when they got hold of the vampires Walter scattered. This one must have slipped past them if _you _managed to catch him." Erin flinched at his words, and Jan resisted the urge to flip him the bird. Alucard stooped down beside the corpse and turned it over, picking something up off the ground and holding it up to the light. It was a small glass vial filled with a substance not quite black and not quite red. Erin was about to ask what it was, but Alucard quickly pocketed the vial.

"I'll report to Sir Integra. _You _get to stay here and clean up the corpse, Sorrel," Alucard snapped, stalking into a shadow portal. As soon as it closed behind him, Erin frowned and crossed her arms over her chest.

"You'd think that after two fucking years he'd get over it," Erin muttered.

"The dude's been alive for fuckin' centuries," Jan remarked, "I'd say any motherfucker who's been alive _that _long is pretty damn capable of holding a grudge. And you _know_ he's been pissed since Integra made him our field commander."

Erin smirked; "Heh, yeah. I guess we can't blame him for being pissed, seeing as Teggy's made it hard for him to kill things- and, by association, get off." Showcasing their incredible maturity, Jan and Erin burst into snickers.

"'S probably a good thing the queen bitch doesn't know we call her that," Jan noted, "Otherwise she'd stop being a normal bitch and go all super bitch. She'd bitch us into space."

"Sometimes I think you're trying to shoehorn as many expletives you can into your sentences," a raspy, English-accented voice remarked. Once again, the duo turned to the source of the voice to see one Walter C. Dolneaz supporting himself against a wall. The artificially young vampire looked half-starved, but that was nothing new; no, what _was _new were the fresh scratches and bites all over him- things that could only come from being almost literally thrown into a pack of ravenous Nosferatu as bait.

Erin immediately cringed and walked to his side; "_Dude_, Alucard's just going overkill now." She paused to hook Walter's arm over her shoulders, and he gave her a nod of gratitude.

Jan just grinned; "Hey, think on the bright side; at least there's someone he hates more than you." Erin silently chuckled, and Walter would've rolled his eyes if that wasn't so damn accurate.

"Jan, can you deal with the corpse? I'm gonna find somewhere Walter can recuperate," Erin asked. Jan frowned, but he rolled his eyes and proceeded to turn solid so he could lift the corpse while Erin dragged Walter under the nearest overhang and out of the rain.

"You treat me far too well, Miss Sorrel," Walter remarked, his tone unreadable.

Erin smirked as she rung out her hair; "We're in the same boat, Walter. We might as well be friends."

**September 2nd, Germany**

Rip Van Winkle twirled as she walked along the roof, her long hair twirling along with her, and hummed a few bars from some song in her absolute _favorite _opera. You all know the one. Hans Gunsche couldn't help but smile just a bit behind the large collar of his greatcoat- Rip's enthusiasm was always contagious, even when she was a nervous little girl first starting out in Millennium. And he couldn't blame her for being excited- this was the first time she'd been back to her home town of Dresden in decades. As Rip hummed her tune, Hans took a moment to look around; this place couldn't possibly be at all like it had been when she was growing up. Here it was, full of life, energy, and too many freaking trees! Now, Hans had no problem with nature, but not when the sheer amount of it was making it difficult for him to sniff out a werewolf, already a very difficult task in a city this big.

Rip stopped her twirling and adjusted her black-with-red-pinstripes (she was _very _particular about that detail) fedora and matching waistcoat before asking, "Well? Have you caught the scent yet, Hans?" The former S.S. captain stood to his full height and nodded, then gestured with his head forwards.

"That way, right," Rip replied with a nod, and as she and Hans leapt to the next rooftop, Rip couldn't help but beam; "I can't say it enough, I love this place~! It's beautiful, look at all the trees! It's nothing like it was when I was little girl, but to be fair things weren't that great when I was a little girl." Hans raised his eyebrows just a bit; wasn't _that _the truth.

"So, are we close?" Rip asked as Hans stopped leaping to reacquire the scent. He nodded, but held up a hand- he didn't want her thinking they were right on top of him and jumping on a civilian. A very similar situation was what had gotten them stuck with Hellsing for another year and a half. Hans blinked a few times to get the subject off his mind, then sniffed the air once more before furrowing his brow. This was odd- the werewolf was suddenly doubling over into an alleyway across the street, moving in the general direction of the river, and he was starting to smell fear… and two _very _familiar scents.

Hans motioned to Rip that they were crossing over the street, and she nodded before leaping first with him just a few seconds behind. Hans leapt ahead of her once they landed on the other side- they had to head him off, just in case the two others chasing him cornered him at the river and he leapt in. They'd lose him for sure that way. They leapt over a few more roofs before Hans stopped dead in his tracks and sniffed the air once more; the trail had stopped. The werewolf was stationary just in front of this building, and the two familiar scents were right on top of him. Without the least bit of warning to Rip, Hans leapt off of the roof and onto the ground below. Rip sputtered in surprise before following him down.

The two of them were faced with a pair of women pinning down the werewolf (a young man who looked quintessentially German), one of them androgynous and dual-wielding Desert Eagles (one of them upside down since she was lacking a pointer finger), and the other just shy of twenty with blonde hair to her shoulders, blue eyes, a black and white minidress that _would _be immodestly short if not for the cycling shorts she wore with it, and holding a fencing saber to the werewolf's neck.

Kallenna Selmhan blinked the moment she noticed someone drop down beside her and turned to face the pair of Hellsing operatives, holding out her sword in preparation for a scuffle. However, once she _recognized _them, Kallenna's eyes widened before she lowered her sword, groaned, and smacked herself on the forehead.

"Ugh, _again_," Kallenna groaned, "Maxwell seriously needs to stop sending us to countries without official religions just so we _might _butt heads with Hellsing! Okay…"

The girl looked over her shoulder and called, "Heinkell! Is Germany mostly Catholic or mostly Protestant?"

"Actually, out of all ze Christians in ze country, zirty percent are Catholic and twenty-nine-point-nine percent are Protestant," Heinkell replied as she pressed both of her guns to the werewolf's neck.

Kallenna just sighed; "It figures it'd be nearly half and half. Okay, what's the distribution?"

"I zink most Catholics are in ze south vest vhile most Protestants are in the North East? I might haff zat backvards…" Rip muttered, putting a hand to her chin in thought.

"And we're in the northeast," Kallenna grumbled, "But if Rip is wrong, then…?"

"_The second most predominant religion is Islam,_" Hans remarked in everyone's minds.

Kallenna shot him a glare; "Oh no, you will _not _bring Islam into this. Not after that time in Saudi Arabia." Everyone let out a collective shudder.

"I'm trying to zink back to ven I grew up here for reference…" Rip commented.

Kallenna raised an eyebrow; "Rip, no offense, but you grew up in the thirties. I don't think Islam even existed back then, so-"

"Islam vas created in 622 AD!" Rip exclaimed.

"Okay, all this talk of Islam and jurisdiction is getting us nowhere!" Kallenna snapped. "Look, we've all worked together well enough in the past. Let's just not think about the dumb jurisdiction stuff and let Maxwell and Integra fight it out after we give them our reports."

"Sounds good to me," Rip replied with a shrug while Hans just nodded.

Kallenna nodded before her eyes became sharp and she once again forced her sword right up against the young werewolf's neck; "Alright, I want answers. Why've werewolves been popping up in Germany all of a sudden? And why have they taken an interest in killing humans for food? Tell me what you know, _now_." The young man just narrowed his eyes and let out a growl.

"_He's frightened,_" Hans commented.

"Shouldn't zat make him more prone to spilling his guts?" Heinkell asked, quirking an eyebrow.

Hans shook his head; "_He may be frightened, but I'd bet anything that the werewolves causing trouble are members of his pack. He wouldn't sell them out if you were threatening to nuke him out of orbit._"

Kallenna frowned; "Damn it. Heinkell, let's just kill this guy and do more digging around the city-" Kallenna cut herself off when Hans grabbed the blade of her saber and glared at her.

"_First, he hasn't hurt anyone yet_," Hans growled. "_He's only a juvenile- any alphas with even a scrap of decency don't let their youngest kill humans until they're full adults. Second, if you take him hostage, his pack will more than likely come after him or negotiate for him._"

"Let me guess, you're _also _doing this because your species has been on the decline since the end of the first World War," Kallenna remarked dryly. Hans just narrowed his eyes even more at her. Kallenna glared right back at him, but after a second or two she sighed and turned back to the young werewolf.

"Fine," she muttered. "We'll both report back to our superiors and see who should keep him. Somebody knock him out." Right on cue, Rip smacked the juvenile over the head with the butt of her musket with a truly weird amount of enthusiasm, and he went crashing down. Everyone looked over at Rip in shock.

"Vat? I expected zis mission to be more violent, I'm just acting on my urges," Rip said simply, adjusting her glasses. Hans just shook his head and pulled out his Hellsing-issued phone, dialing the headquarters.

**September 2nd, England**

Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing had been in the middle of some _lovely_ paperwork when her phone began ringing. She immediately knew who it was when she answered it and didn't hear a thing on the other line.

Integra pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed, "Gunsche, hand the phone over to Van Winkle."

After some sounds of shuffling, Rip spoke up on the other end of the line; "Sir Integra, ve found ze verevolf in Dresden. However, ve also ran into Kallenna and Heinkell- I mean, Iscariot operatives. I hope it's not bad zat ve interrogated ze verevolf togezher?"

Integra smiled just a little bit; "They're our allies, Van Winkle. It's perfectly fine to cooperate with them."

"Okay, good," Rip sighed. "Vell, he vouldn't sell out his pack to us, so ve decided to take him hostage so his pack would come after him or negotiate for him. Should ve take him or should ve let Iscariot take him?"

Integra put a hand to her chin and replied, "I'm assuming Kallenna and Heinkell will be reporting to Maxwell. He and I will discuss this. Until I contact you again, keep an eye on the werewolf."

"Understood, ma'am." With that, Rip hung up, but the phone began ringing not a second later.

Integra answered it, and nearly groaned when she heard, "Good evening, my master," on the other end.

"What is it, Alucard?" Integra wondered, raising an eyebrow and leaning back in her chair.

"The operation was successful," Alucard reported, "All of the vampires in the area were eliminated, but I didn't eliminate _enough _of them-"

"If you're about to complain about being a field commander again, I will _order _you to go fuck yourself," Integra snapped.

Alucard was silent for a moment before he said, "Fair enough. As I was saying, the vampires were eliminated, but the few that got away died shortly after. They all began bleeding profusely, vomiting blood up as well, and they turned back into humans as they died."

Integra was silent for a few minutes; "I would say that's impossible, but considering our line of work…"

"Exactly," Alucard replied. "Also, I found glass vials of dark red liquid on almost all of the vampires."

Integra nodded and replied, "I'll send men out to Manchester to clean up the bodies. Bring the vials back with you so we can find out what's inside them."

"As you wish, my master," Alucard replied theatrically before hanging up.

Integra was about to put down the phone _again_, but then she got yet another phone call, and when she picked up Enrico Maxwell's voice asked, "What the hell _are _our jurisdiction rules on Germany anyway?"

The Hellsing head rolled her eyes and replied simply, "It's not that hard to remember, Maxwell. If the activity is in the north and the east, Hellsing handles it. If it's in the south and the west, you handle it. Don't you have a map with these things marked?"

"Are you implying that I _should _have a map with these things marked, Integra?" Maxwell asked. Integra swore she could _hear_ his raised eyebrow through the phone.

Integra just smirked; "I was implying nothing of the sort~"

Once again, she could almost hear him rolling his eyes; "No matter, Kallenna and Heinkell just reported to me about the werewolf."

"I'm not so keen on letting you keep him," Integra remarked. "The members of Section XIII aren't known for their mercy towards the creatures they hunt."

"Oh really? I haven't heard such good things about Hellsing's treatment of their prisoners, either," Maxwell remarked cooly. Integra tried not to bristle.

"… We'll do rock-paper-scissors for it," Integra declared.

"Rock-paper- We're talking over the phone!" Maxwell exclaimed.

"Do _you _have a better idea of how to settle this?" Integra asked.

Maxwell was silent for a moment before he muttered, "Alright let's go."

"Rock-paper-scissors!"

"I got scissors," Integra said. "What about you?"

"… Definitely rock."

"You got paper, didn't you."

"No! … Yes."

"Alright then, the werewolf is mine," Integra said triumphantly. "See you later, Maxwell~" She hung up on him before he could say anything else, and after a few minutes of Integra settling back into her paperwork (and of course informing Hans and Rip on the prisoner's status), the phone rang _AGAIN_.

"What?" Integra snapped as she picked up the phone.

"Eep!" Seras exclaimed on the other end. "I-I was just going to tell you that me and Pip screwed up with the necromancer Mister Dresden recommended to us and now we're in Japan, but never mind!"

"Wait, wait, wait," Integra sighed, "I'm sorry about that, Seras. Now, tell me in detail."

Seras took a breath before she reported, "Well, Pip and I were given a list of known necromancers from Mister Dresden in Chicago, and the first one we came across was in California… We botched up the meeting with her. We botched it up _real _bad… Although, I shouldn't say _we _so much as I should say _PIP!_"

"Oi! She was 'ot and blonde! 'Ow was I zupposed to know she was ze necromanzer?" Pip shouted from (presumably) just a few feet away.

"You were supposed to know because _we had a picture of her!_" Seras shouted back, pulling the phone away.

"_Seras_," Integra said sternly, bringing the draculina's attention back to the conversation.

"Oh, right, sorry," she said with an uncomfortable chuckle.

"_This _is why I told you only to consult Dresden if there was no other choice," Integra chided. "He may be a key resource in America, but his information ends up getting us in far more trouble than we intended."

"Sorry, sir," Seras said, her pout loud and clear over the phone.

Integra sighed again; "No matter, you have the information, you might as well use it. Contact me again if you make any progress."

**September 2nd, Japan**

"Yes, sir, of course," Seras said before hanging up and turning to Pip once more. "Alright, let's try not to mess this one up, alright?" Pip just stuck his tongue out at her before pulling the list of necromancers Harry Dresden had given them out of his pocket.

"I have no idea how we're going to single someone out in a place this big," Seras mumbled, "I mean, Ikebukuro is just one district! And this place is… it's huge!" Indeed, the two of them were just outside the entrance to Ikebukuro Station- they'd had to put their combat experience into practice just to get through the crowds down there, and Seras had to use her shadow eye to find (and by find we mean summon) Pip once she'd gotten out of the station- and Seras was focused on one of the large television screens on the side of a building showing off a rather bloody anime involving people in suits fighting on top of trains.

"'Iz name is Izaya Orihara," Pip remarked, "And zere's a note here; 'I only put 'im on zee leest because I know 'im- you really shouldn't work wiz 'im. Ze guy is kind of an asshole, but if you really want to find 'im, look for ze flying vending machines'…"

Seras cocked her head to the side and raised an eyebrow; "Flying vending machines? What kind of trouble does this man get into?"

Right then, a vending machine went flying across one of the nearest cross-streets, smashing into a lamppost and uprooting the damn thing. Seras's eyes were wider than dinner plates, and Pip's cigarette all but fell out of his mouth.

"We're about to find out," Pip replied, grinning at Seras. Seras rolled her eyes and sprinted toward the commotion with Pip on her heels.

_1. I tried my best to keep the Captain silent. I really did. But then I realized that he really wouldn't be able to work well with others if he didn't communicate with them _somehow_, and I wasn't about to fall back on sign language or him writing everything down. So yeah, werewolf telepathy- or at least for Hans' breed of werewolf- goes to other people too. 2. I'm sorry I couldn't start this off with legitimate action :C But, we might get some next time if that's how I end up writing it~! I hope you enjoyed, stay classy everyone._


	2. Mach 13 Elephant Explosion

**Fandom:** Hellsing, Twilight- screw it, EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN.

**Title:** Hostilities _or_ Alliances 2: Electric Boogaloo

**Rating:** T

**Pairing(s):** AxS, ExI, more than I can think to list

**Genre:** Adventure, Drama, Romance, Humor

**Warning(s):** Blood, violence, gore, sexual themes, language, OOC, OC's

**Dedicated:** Master of the Boot, my mentor in all things fanfiction who has helped me become the writer I am now.

**Summary:** It's been two years, nearly three- London is only partially rebuilt, the vampire queen She is on the loose, dens of false vampires have been popping up around the world, Germany is experiencing a werewolf epidemic, Seras and Pip are traveling the world in search of a necromancer/witch/Unseelie fae, Rip Van Winkle is sporting a fedora, and Alucard watches My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. We're in for quite a ride.

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing except for the plot and all OCs.

**Number of Words: **6,304**  
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**Date Started (chapter):** 9/24/11

**Date Completed (chapter):** 9/29/11

**Author Notes:** Welcome back, everyone~! I don't have anything to say just yet, but I might add something after I've filled up this chapter. I _will _say, however, that at least a passing familiarity with Durarara and the character Izaya Orihara will probably help your understanding of the beginning of this chapter. This is also the first chapter where I'll be using more obscure song-titles for the chapters, and… well, you get to decide your reward if you can guess where they're from/who they're by/whatever correctly.

**Chapter II - Mach 13 Elephant Explosion**

**September 2nd, Japan**

Seras ducked under a flying lamppost as she rounded the corner, and said lamppost nearly knocked Pip's hat off. Pip let out a curse in french, but Seras payed that little mind as she got closer and closer to the source of the flying inanimate objects… and had her vision blocked off by more people than you could shake a stick at.

"Ugh, I _hate _rubber-neckers," Seras groaned just as Pip caught up to her. Before Pip could ask her whether or not they should muscle their way to the front of the crowd, Seras grabbed him by the arm and leapt to the top of a nearby building. The draculina set Pip down and left him to glare at her as she walked to the side of the building and got a bird's-eye-view of the fight below.

And, oh, what a fight it was.

A tall, blonde man in a bartender getup ripped a bolted-down trash can out of the ground and threw it with a loud roar- his target (another man, though this one much more slight with black hair, eyes that looked red if you squinted, and a fur-lined jacket) stepped out of the way with ease as he ran backwards away from his 'opponent'. He had an infuriating grin on his face, and Seras had to restrain herself from going down there to punch it straight off of him. The grinning man fished around in his jacket for a second or two and came back with a knife, tossing it straight at the blonde bartender. Unfortunately for him, the knife collided uselessly with the next thing being thrown his way, which was yet another street sign. He dodged around it, but once he did he had to dodge around a punch from the bartender who'd closed the distance between them without his knowledge.

"I'm impressed, Shizu-chan," the grinning man remarked, dodging around his opponent yet again as the blonde man turned around and grabbing the street sign. "Normally you never get this close!" He ran past the bartender fast enough that even Seras's eyes had to keep up, then when he'd picked up enough speed he used the sign as an impromptu pole-vault, landing on a pair of knives Seras hadn't even seen him throw into the side of a nearby building.

Pip walked up next to her just then and wondered, "Zo… Which one do you zink iz ze necromanzer?"

"I'd say the one that looks incredibly smug," Seras replied, and Pip nodded in agreement.

Meanwhile, the dark-haired man narrowed his eyes, but his grin remained present; "I think you're getting just a little _too _close this time…" He pulled yet another knife from his jacket, said something too low for any human to hear, and as the knife began to glow an unearthly red he threw it into the ground just in front of his opponent's feet. The pavement began to crack in an almost perfect circle about the size of a manhole, and once the circle was complete a column of fire jetted out of the ground, breaking the ground above it into pieces and getting the blonde man to recoil.

The flames quickly dispersed, but once they did, a humanoid figure crawled out of the ground. The creature was all black and looked severely malnourished, its eyes glowed an eerily familiar purple, and the minute it caught sight of the blonde man the creature let out a shriek so grating that Seras had to cover her ears and curse her advanced vampire hearing. There was no mistaking it, that man had just brought someone- some_thing _back from Hell to fight for him.

As two or three more crawled out of the 'hellhole' behind the first, Seras and Pip looked to each other and said in unison, "Totally called it."

The grinning man- who was now unmistakably Izaya Orihara- let out a brief chuckle before he called, "So long, Shizu-chan~! I'll leave you to play with your new friends." With that, Izaya leapt off of his knives and into the crowd, disappearing from sight. Seras shot the man a glare before turning back to the raised dead; the blonde man had ripped yet another street sign out of the ground and was brandishing it like a weapon as the (for lack of better terminology) zombies prepared to make their move.

Seras didn't waste any time- she raised her right hand to her shadow eye, an ethereal image of the Hellsing seal appearing just in front of it. She thought of the Harkonnen, and immediately clenched her hand into a fist. The Hellsing seal glowed white, and within a bright flash of light the Harkonnen appeared in the air in front of the Hellsing seal. Immediately gravity took over and the gun fell from the air as the Hellsing seal disappeared, but Seras caught it, spun it around a few times over her head for flourish, and placed it in firing position. She lined up the shot and fired, taking out two of the zombies in one shot- their dark, discolored internal organs splattered all over the pavement, and they went down like a ton of bricks.

The draculina winced as she heard people screaming at the sight, and Pip remarked, "You _ztill _don't 'ave a knack for zis 'zubtlety' zing, _Mignonette_." Seras rolled her eyes and turned to the last of the three zombies, but her eye widened in shock- the blonde bartender had already felled the creature, spearing it through the head with the traffic sign. He now seemed more interested in the cigarette he was taking a drag from, as if fighting the raised corpses of the dead was something he did on a daily basis. And, hell, maybe it was. Seras turned away and sent her canon away, turning to Pip as she did.

"Well, now we know who Izaya Orihara iz," the French mercenary captain remarked with a bit of a smirk. "Now we juzt 'ave to track 'im down and 'ope he cooperates with uz."

Seras grimaced; "Judging by what we just saw, I don't think that'll be easy… So, how should we go about finding him? Oh! I think that bartender person would probably know!"

Pip winced and remarked, "Zeras, would zat _really_-" Too late. Seras had already used her shadows to make a pair of sunglasses, put them on, and was preparing to jump off the roof of the building.

"I'll be back, Pip," Seras said before jumping to the ground. Pip just smacked himself on the forehead, and while several civilians immediately backed out of her way, Seras dusted herself off and looked to the bartender.

His back was turned and he looked to be walking away, so Seras called out (remembering to speak Japanese as she did), "Excuse me, sir?" He stopped in his tracks and turned to her, an eyebrow raised in question as Seras closed the distance between them.

"I was just wondering, that man you were fighting with, do you know where he lives?" Seras asked, clasping her hands behind her back and bouncing on her heels in a way that made her look almost childish.

He furrowed his eyebrows, but replied evenly, "Yeah. He lives in Shinjuku, around the Yotsuya neighborhood. I wouldn't recommend goin' after him, though. He's kind of an asshole."

Seras winced just a bit; "So I've heard. Thank you for your help, mister…?"

"Heiwajima."

"Heiwajima~! Thank you, Mister Heiwajima," Seras chirped with a smile before bounding off and back onto the building.

"Zeeing as you weren't punched into zpace, you know where Izaya is?" Pip asked, stomping out his cigarette.

Seras nodded with a bright smile; "Indeed I do~! He lives in Shinjuku, in the Yotsuya neighborhood. We'll have to get there by subway before I can use my shadow eye to get a specific address."

Pip visibly paled; "Um, Mignonette, I zink I'm 'alf-traumatized by our ride to Ikebukuro…"

Seras's smile became even brighter; "Well, then I suppose you'll just have to suck it up~!" Pip swore to the lord above that this girl was far more evil than she let on.

Finding Izaya Orihara's apartment wasn't _too _arduous a process. The worst part of it was the subway ride there, but that was mostly a nightmare for Pip. Once the two of them had made it to the Yotsuya neighborhood, Seras had foregone the use of her shadow eye to track Izaya by scent. Now, you'd probably think that in Tokyo, this would be hell. However, a necromancer who'd just cast black magic always stank of death, and left a trail that one could smell from a mile away. It lead Seras and Pip on a winding path through back alleys and red light districts, almost taking them around in circles at some points, before finally taking them to an apartment on the fifth or sixth floor of a fairly upscale building.

Seras and Pip exchanged glances outside the door, both of them thinking the exact same thing: did they _really _want to get involved with Izaya Orihara? Finally all those warnings that he was a complete and total asshole were sinking in, but before they could come to a decision, the door suddenly opened. A tall, statuesque woman with long dark hair and sharp eyes to match regarded them from the doorway for a few moments before turning to reveal Izaya smirking at them from a desk on the other side of the room.

"They're here, just like you said they'd be," she remarked, her neutral tone just the slightest bit scathing. Seras looked over at Pip out of the corner of her eye, and immediately face-palmed. His eye was glued directly to the tall woman's (rather shapely, Seras had to admit) behind.

Izaya nodded and said, "Invite them in, Namie. The girl will be stuck outside if we don't invite her in~"

Seras bristled at that, and 'Namie' rolled her eyes before extending an arm out into the apartment and saying, "Come on in." Seras nodded in thanks and tried not to stomp as she came in, while Pip shot Namie a wolfish grin and went on in with a '_Merci beaucoup, ma chérie_'. She just rolled her eyes and moved off to some other part of the apartment, her disinterest in the upcoming discussion coming off her in waves. Izaya got to his feet and gestured to the couch; Seras took a seat and Pip continued to stand.

Once she was seated, Seras took a look around the apartment- it was primarily black and grey when it came to color scheme, the front wall mostly window (and showing off an impressive view of the city), and sparsely furnished- there was just a couch, a coffee table, and Izaya's computer desk. The walls were lined with bookshelves all the way to the ceiling, and there was only half of an upper level, simply consisting of a catwalk that made getting books from the higher shelves that much easier. The apartment was a portrait of a man who thought himself better than everyone, and was just fine with them knowing that.

"So, what business does the Hellsing organization have with a humble information broker?" Izaya wondered, his smirk ever-present. "It must be quite important if they've sent one of their pet vampires along."

Seras narrowed her eyes; "And how is it you know I'm a vampire?"

"Well, it's quite simple really," Izaya replied, "I'm the kind of person who doesn't automatically assume someone with red eyes is just wearing contacts. And besides, you saw me in action against Shizu-chan; I know a fellow 'creature of darkness' when I see one."

Seras let out a hum of acknowledgment, and Pip chimed in just then; "We'll be ztraight wiz you, Meezter Orihara. 'Ellzing eez in need of a necromancer, and we'd like you to 'elp us." Izaya raised an eyebrow, and Seras had to bristle again- he'd known that already, and for some reason that pissed her off to no end. Hell, just being in his _presence_ pissed her off to no end.

"Really now? May I ask _why _Hellsing requires my services after they tried their damnedest to wipe everyone like me out~?"

"Don't answer him, Pip," Seras snapped. "He already knows. He just wants to hear it from us so that we _think _he doesn't know…" Pip's eye widened before in narrowed once more, and Izaya let out a chuckle.

"Miss Victoria, don't take that so _personally_," Izaya said, his smile dripping with a mockery of kindness, "I'm an information broker- if I don't know everything going on in the world, then I can't afford my next meal." Seras just shot him a glare that would cripple a lesser man.

Izaya turned his eyes back to Pip; "You were saying, Captain Bernadotte?"

Pip was silent for a bit before muttering through gritted teeth, "One of our enemies 'az resurrected a ghost to zpy on uz, and we need _you _to sever zeir connection _and _'elp us fight against ze one who brought 'im back."

Izaya's smirk widened into a cheshire cat-grin, and he turned to the window; "That's going to be quite a challenge, severing a link forged by the Queen of Vampires. However, She's quite the threat to humanity, and I just _love _humans. I'll fight with you against her… On _one _condition."

"Of course there's a condition," Seras muttered.

Izaya turned back to them, his smirk gone; "I need you to retrieve Saika."

Pip and Seras cocked their heads to the side and echoed in unison, "Saika?"

"A cursed sword sharp enough to sever the soul, and the vehicle I use to cast black magic greater than what you saw me doing today," Izaya explained, "Saika has a consciousness, and it's much like my own. She also wants to love humanity, however she can only show her love through cutting people and filling their souls with her children. Since I'm her wielder, _I _decide who she cuts, and I control her children. She was stolen from me quite recently, and I want her _back_." Izaya's eyes flashed a bright red at the end of his sentence, and Seras nearly jumped at the shock.

She then put her hand to her chin; "Hm… I suppose that if we want your help we don't have any other choice. We'll locate it for you, but _you _need to help us get it." The draculina stood up right then and walked so that she was face to face with Izaya.

"If you even _think _of screwing us over," Seras hissed, shadows leaking out of the soles of her shoes, "Just remember that you're a part of a dying breed because of _us_."

Izaya's smirk returned; "Miss Victoria, you're underestimating just how important Saika is to me. Anyone who can help me retrieve her is _more _than deserving of my loyalty." Seras narrowed her eyes, but her shadows dissolved into the light and she stepped back from Izaya.

"Fine," she said, "We'll contact you when we find it- _her_." With that, she grabbed Pip by the arm and dragged him out of the apartment, slamming the door behind her.

_Hurry back_, Izaya thought, leaning back against the window and smirking even wider. Just then, Namie walked down the stairs of the catwalk and turned to him with an eyebrow raised once more.

"How do they fit into your 'plan'?" Namie wondered, sarcasm laced into every word of her sentence.

Izaya turned to his secretary and replied, "Oh, they're an entirely new element. But… I think I can find a place for them."

**September 2nd, England**

The scents around him were unfamiliar, and his mind was covered in fog. He heard voices, conversing in his native tongue, a man and a woman. However… The voice of the woman he could hear like he heard any other sound. But the voice of the man, he could hear it like he heard the voices of his pack; he didn't hear it as a language, or even as words, he just was bombarded with feelings and intentions all intricately woven into something he eventually understood as words. Eventually, he recognized the voices; the woman was the bespectacled female vampire who had knocked him unconscious. The man was the tall and most definitely ancient werewolf, the one who had saved his life from the Catholic warrior's silver sword threatening to set his blood aflame.

"I'm still not sure this was the best idea," the woman murmured. "I mean, if his pack doesn't want to negotiate… We're still reeling from the attack, would we really be able to take on a pack of werewolves?"

"_A normal pack of werewolves? We'd need Alucard with a few of his seals released to come out of that_," the werewolf replied, "_But my guess is that the juvenile's pack are starved and weakened. They wouldn't be going after humans if they weren't. We'll be fine, Rip._" The vampiress just sighed, and he opened his eyes just as the two members of Hellsing made their way out of the room. The juvenile werewolf shook his head as he sat up, and after his head cleared he slowly looked around. The walls around him were made of cold stone, and the bars keeping him in were made of silver. They smelled of blood- the whole dungeon smelled of blood, blood and the creatures who fed on it.

It was then that he noticed a pair of concerned eyes watching him from just across the room; he looked over to see a woman clutching the bars of her cell, watching him like an extremely concerned hawk. She smelled of vampire, and given that her skin was the color of marble, he wasn't exactly going to doubt her authenticity. Both her eyes and hair were a warm amber, and she had no sharp edges- everything about her was soft and inviting. She was everything someone could want in a mother, and that just made the juvenile miss his own mother all the more.

"Thank goodness, you're awake," she murmured in her smooth, low voice. "Are you alright? Well, actually, I should _probably _be asking you if you speak English before asking anything else…"

He blinked a few times before saying, "Ich- _I _speak English… A-and yes, I am alright. Vhat is your name?"

The vampire woman smiled a soft, calming smile; "That's a relief. My name is Esme, I'm a prisoner here too. What's your name?"

"… Leon," he replied, only partially lying. Leon was his human name, the name he was taught to give to those who weren't members of the pack. His real name was special, not something a vampire (no matter how nice and inviting she _seemed_) would understand.

Esme chuckled just a bit, and when he cocked his head to the side in question, she answered, "It's kind of ironic, you know? Leon means 'lion', but you transform into a wolf… You get it." He just nodded absently, looking away.

The vampiress could sense his nerves- she furrowed her eyebrows in concern and asked, "What's wrong? If you're nervous about being a prisoner here, don't be. They actually treat their prisoners well enough… Except for one, but he's a special case."

He shook his head; "I'm not exactly a prisoner… more of a bargainink chip. I'm bait for my pack, and I don't zink zey'll vant to negotiate." Esme smiled reassuringly at him, reaching out of the cell as far as she could and laying her hand on the ground- it was the only way she could reach out.

"I can't lie to you- if your pack does try to attack us, Hellsing won't try to take them alive," she remarked. "But let me ask you something; how old are your pack's alphas?"

He furrowed his eyebrows in thought; "I zink zey've been alive for… about a zousand years?"

She nodded; "Well then, they probably know better than to attack Hellsing. You need to trust your pack, Leon. They'll come through for you."

He looked away; "I hope you are right."

**September 2nd, England**

The Hellsing-issue combat vehicle rumbled along the road leading to the Hellsing manor, but nobody inside was at all aware of how close to 'home' they were. Everybody from Alucard to Walter was staring at one particular soldier in complete silence, and they had been for nearly half of the ride. Why?

Because this perfectly normal man had a pair of horns sprouting from either side of his head.

And these weren't the stubby Cutaneous horns you saw on some people, oh no. These were curved horns about six inches long each, and they looked like they'd be more at home on a bull's head than this soldier's head. He'd been keeping quiet the whole ride, covering his horns as best as he could, but when he actually started talking to everyone else, their attention was drawn straight to his horns. Nobody had spoken since.

The mercenary chose now to sigh and smack himself on the forehead; "Yes, they're horns, and they're coming out of my head."

"But _why_?" everyone exclaimed in unison, almost everyone looking some shade of horrified. Everyone but Alucard, who looked more morbidly curious than anything else. The mercenary groaned once more.

"It's _because _my wife is cheating on me," he replied simply.

Everyone continued to stare, but Walter spoke up after a second or two; "Uhm, I'm sorry, but how do you know it was your wife cheating on you that caused you to grow horns? There's a gap of logic there that I'm not sure that crosses…"

"Actually, I've seen it many times throughout my life," Alucard remarked, "Countless cuckolded men have grown horns because their wives were getting it from someone else. And, on that note, sucks to be you, Soldier."

"Thanks," he spat bitterly as the vehicle stopped just inside the gate of the Hellsing manor. Alucard breezed out of the extremely crowded vehicle ahead of everyone else, and the rest of the soldiers followed him. Erin, Jan, and Walter were out last, Erin hovering around Walter as he limped down the path to the manor.

"Are you _sure _you don't need help?" Erin asked, concern everywhere on her face as she flitted around Walter.

The severely starved vampire just smiled as best as he could manage; "Oh, I definitely need help, but it's probably best you don't help me. Helping me will probably make you look even worse in Integra's eyes." Erin stopped in her tracks at that remark, sighing as she watched Walter limp into the mansion.

She then turned to Jan; "I know he betrayed them and all, but… I swear, Integra's punishment for him is just plain overkill."

"Can you _really _blame her?" Jan wondered. "He _did _betray her after she trusted him for pretty much her whole fuckin' life."

"But slowly starving him to death while letting everyone just use him as a chew toy? Don't you think that's just a _little _overboard?" Erin continued, furrowing her brow.

Jan just shrugged; "'S what I'd do."

Erin's eyes widened and she recoiled a bit in surprise; "_Jesus_. Remind me never to break up with _you_." Before that conversation could go any further, Erin's hearing picked up a pair of feet hitting the ground not far behind her. She whirled around, hands on her guns, to face the intruder. Said intruder was a woman around her early thirties, tall and sleek in build with long silver hair and steely eyes. She was wearing military fatigues, but over the top half of her uniform she wore a black leather jacket. Her eyes were constantly moving, though not out of nerves- she just seemed to be constantly observing her environment, taking in every detail she could before her eyes finally settled on Erin.

Erin frowned and shouted, "Oi! I don't know where the hell you're from, but trespassing's illegal around these parts! What the hell're you even doing, sneaking onto our property?"

The woman's eyes narrowed further and she snapped, "I don't need to explain myself to a foot soldier. I mean your organization no harm, now leave me to my work." Erin's eyes widened before they narrowed even more- well, look who was being a bitch this evening. Experimentally, Erin sniffed the air…

She growled deep in her throat and hissed, "Ugh… You don't smell right. You're not human," Erin paused to pull out her guns and train them right on the trespasser; "You've got ten seconds to tell me what the _hell _you're doing here and why I shouldn't blow your brains out."

The silver-haired woman ground her teeth and reached into her jacket, pulling her hands out with trench knives on her knuckles; "And you smell of _Her_." The two women circled around, their eyes fixed on each other as they moved and looked for the perfect opportunity to strike. When Erin had just about found her opening, she prepared to pull the trigger-

"Agh, damn it Kya! Why is it that when I _tell _you not to go ahead, you do it anyway?" Both the silver-haired woman and Erin turned to the gate to see a woman with curly dark hair and eyes obscured by sunglasses stomping up to them. This woman was also in military fatigues, but she wore the entire uniform, and there was a patch sewn to her shoulder- Erin's stagnant heart sunk into her stomach when she recognized the patch as the menorah and hebrew text of the Mossad emblem. The silver-haired woman- presumably this 'Kya'- immediately put her trench knives away and looked at her feet in shame.

The female soldier stopped between Erin and Kya and turned to the former; "I'm very sorry about this. _Kya_ here has to scout out everywhere we go before I get there. Anyways, I'm Staff Sergeant Ariella Cohen, member of Mossad's special operations unit Kherev. Our organizations negotiated for us to have an audience with Sir Integra, could you lead us to her?"

Erin gave her best nervous grin, which ended up as an uncomfortable grimace; "I would if I were allowed near classified information like this, but I can tell you her office is on the second floor, behind the largest doors you'll ever see." Ariella raised an eyebrow, but nodded her gratitude and continued on, beckoning Kya behind her. Erin watched them go, her eyes wandering down Kya's legs…

And Erin had to stifle a curse when she caught sight of Kya's shadow, pitch black even in the muted light of the moon through fog. It stretched far behind her in the shape of a large, masculine figure, with four arms and four large, sharp horns. It moved about of its own accord, stretching and squirming about and even looking to let out silent roars.

Only one thing ran through Erin's mind- _Jesus. Fucking. Christ._

It didn't take long for Kya and Ariella to find Integra's office; in minutes Ariella was standing in front of the female knight's desk while Integra scrutinized her, Kya standing in the far-left corner with her eyes averted and Alucard in the right, his eyes locked on the woman's shadow and his lips twisted into his customary grin.

"It's an honor to meet you in person, Sir Hellsing," Ariella began, inclining her head in a short bow.

Integra simply raised an eyebrow and nodded in return; "Your leader wasn't very specific when he asked for this audience, Staff Sergeant. All he said was that the matter you wished to discuss was of dire importance, and given the state of the world these days that doesn't always mean what it should."

Ariella looked away, her lips twisting into a frown; "Yes, well, the fact of the matter is that most of Mossad's administrators don't even believe in half of the things our division has to protect them from on a daily basis. They'd rather die than simply say the word 'vampire' in serious conversation."

Integra nodded, a ghost of a smile forming behind her steepled hands; "Believe me, you aren't alone in that area."

Ariella nodded and said, "I'll get straight to the point, Sir. Vampires have been appearing all over Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, more than we're equipped to deal with, and they're different than any we've encountered so far. If run down, they vomit up all of their blood, sometimes even organs. They turn back into humans when they die, and autopsies have found an unidentifiable substance in their bloodstreams."

Integra narrowed her eyes in thought; "Similar cases have been appearing in England… May I ask why your division can't handle this?"

Ariella sighed and put a hand to her brow, blushing just a bit; "Like I said, not even our higher ups believe in what we fight. The only thing they genuinely believe in are demons, and those are the only things we're equipped to fight."

Integra raised an eyebrow; "My understanding is that demons are stronger than vampires. If you're prepared for them, then why aren't you prepared for these false vampires?"

Alucard grinned even wider; "The only demons who come to the world of man are those too weak to survive in Hell, or the ones that Lucifer wants to use as canon fodder. And even then, they can't survive on Earth. They have to take limited human forms, isn't that right miss… Kya, was it?" Kya immediately flinched, and Alucard's grin threatened to break his face in two.

Ariella nodded; "Yes, and since we're only equipped to fight them, when we come across anything more… You get the idea. So, can you help us?"

Integra closed her eyes with a small sigh; "We may be able to send two or three operatives to help you. Our forces are spread very thin as it is, we can't afford to keep too many of them out of England."

Ariella nodded; "Any help at all would be more than enough. We'll take our leave now- please, contact us when you've chosen who to send with us." With that, Kya and Ariella left the room and left Alucard and Integra alone in her office.

Integra's eyes sharpened and she snapped, "You're dismissed, servant. I need time to think." Alucard just grinned and left through a shadow portal, and Integra was left alone with her thoughts.

**September 2nd, Location Unknown**

Within a fairly dark laboratory, She frowned and turned her mind's eye away from the ghost's vision as the Israeli soldiers left his line of sight; if only that girl were more willing to break the rules… The vampire queen shook her head and turned to her ever-eager 'daughter' Morinth.

"We're all set, Mother~!" the dhampiress chirped, nearly bouncing with excitement. She smirked and walked over to the table in the center of the room. Strapped to it by his wrists and ankles was a nude Schrödinger, struggling and struggling to teleport out of his bonds to no avail.

She's smirk fell and she asked, "You set the runes on his restraints?"

"Yes, ma'am~! He won't be teleporting out of _those _anytime soon."

"Did you set up the runes at the entrance?"

"Of course! Nobody but you can leave until I break the circle."

"Good. Now, hand me a scalpel," She remarked, holding her hand out for a scalpel. Morinth dropped one in her hand before her sentence was finished. "Now, take a note- today we're finally looking into the boy's internal organs and timing how fast he can regenerate from dissection. His regeneration time for gunshot wounds was ten-point-five seconds, as was his regeneration time for explosive damage. Remember to start the timer the minute the damage is done, and not a second before. Understood?"

Morinth gave a vigorous nod, and She smirked once again; "Then let us begin." With that, She stabbed the scalpel into the catboy's skin, just beneath the sternum, and began to cut down the length of his torso. Schrödinger let out an ear-piercing yowl, more feline than human, as blood leaked from the incision and a few bandages whipped out from She's dress to hold it open.

She quirked an eyebrow as she observed the boy's internal organs, then ordered, "Morinth, take a note. The boy's internal organs don't seem to actually function- they're all there, but they're not moving or pulsating an inch. They're almost for show." She put a hand to her chin in thought; what organ should she remove? There were so many vital ones that struck her fancy right now…

After a second or two, she smiled merrily and set about cutting out the boy's non-functioning pancreas. It was fairly simple, cutting through the tissue keeping the organ in place and severing the connection to the Gall bladder and cutting the duodenum out of the stomach; once everything was almost completely cut, She grinned and ripped the pancreas out by the tail. Schrödinger screamed loud enough to pierce a human's eardrum, and She had to hold back the desire to giggle uncontrollably. The vampire queen cut just a tiny bit of tissue from the anterior surface of the pancreas, but before she could bring it to a microscope the tissue flew back into place, the organ jumping out her hand to land back in its place. In seconds, the pancreas was connected again and the incision she made was closed.

She grinned and turned to Morinth; "What was the regeneration time?"

Morinth smiled as she wrote down the time; "Thirty-three-point-seven seconds, Mother."

She's grin gained a wicked angle and she leaned down next to Schrödinger's face; "Oh, this is going to be _so much fun_~"


	3. Saber's Edge

**Fandom:** Hellsing, Twilight, Durarara!- screw it, EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN.

**Title:** Hostilities _or_ Alliances 2: Electric Boogaloo

**Rating:** T

**Pairing(s):** More than I can think to list

**Genre:** Adventure, Drama, Romance, Humor

**Warning(s):** Blood, violence, gore, sexual themes, language, OOC, OC's

**Dedicated:** Master of the Boot, my mentor in all things fanfiction who has helped me become the writer I am now.

**Summary:** It's been two years, nearly three- London is only partially rebuilt, the vampire queen She is on the loose, dens of false vampires have been popping up around the world, Germany is experiencing a werewolf epidemic, Seras and Pip are traveling the world in search of a necromancer/witch/Unseelie fae, Rip Van Winkle is sporting a fedora, and Alucard watches My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. We're in for quite a ride.

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing except for the plot and all OCs.

**Author Notes:** All I have to say is I am immensely sorry.

**Chapter III - Saber's Edge**

**September 3rd, England**

Integra Hellsing walked down the hallway at a decent clip; even now, when she was simply looking for one of her least favorite soldiers, she carried herself with the dignity and grace her position required. I mean, who ever heard of a knight with anything _other _than absolutely perfect posture? Any knight _without _such posture would be, quite frankly, a piss-poor excuse for a knight if I do say so myself. Integra stopped midway down the hall, turning to the door directly to her left. As far as she'd been told by that poor soldier with horns and picked up from listening to her men idly chattering, Erin had gone in here. She opened the door…

"_Winter Wrap-up Winter Wrap-uuup~! Let's finish our holiday cheer~_"

Integra, for the first time in quite a while, had no idea what to feel as she walked in on Alucard sitting on the couch, watching colorful ponies bounce around and sing about winter. And the worst thing about it? Alucard actually seemed to genuinely enjoy this spectacle, bouncing up and down in time with the infectiously catchy song and grinning.

Now, Integra was normally a quite eloquent woman, but at this moment in time, all she could muster was a simple, "What."

Alucard turned to his master, eyebrow raised in confusion; "What do you mean 'what'?"

Integra blinked before she said in the flattest voice she could muster, "I was only wondering if you saw Erin go through here."

Alucard frowned, but replied, "Yes, Sorrel passed through a minute or two ago, she should be in the next room over. Now, it's almost Applejack's section of the song, and I will _not _be denied the pleasure of listening to my favorite pony."

The female knight simply walked behind the couch and through the door on the other side of the room, trying to pay Alucard and his ponies as little mind as possible. That got a lot more difficult when Alucard actually started singing along. Once she'd put a door between her and Alucard, Integra made a small noise not even she could identify properly. She still had no idea what to think of what she just witnessed.

The knight's eyebrows shot up on reflex when she heard Erin's voice remark, "You saw him watching ponies?" She looked to her right and saw Erin sitting on a table, her ghostly boyfriend floating beside her and what Integra _assumed _was a Nintendo DS sitting in the Unstet's hands (she never had time for frivolous pursuits, you couldn't expect her to be able to tell one gaming system from another). The look on Erin's face was the pure embodiment of the phrase 'I know that feel, bro'.

Integra's guard took a bit to fly back up, and in that moment she muttered, "I'm not sure if I should be amused or terrified."

"Me either, ma'am. Me either," Erin replied, slowly nodding. In a second, Integra was professional once more, and she crossed her arms over her chest. Her icy eyes made contact with Erin's, the temperature of the room lowering by a degree.

"Get off the table," the knight snapped. Erin's eyes widened before she angled them down, scrambling off the table with a hurried 's-sorry ma'am'. Erin stood up straight, facing Integra but focusing her eyes on Integra's nose- anything to avoid eye contact. Jan was not nearly as intimidated by her- his gold eyes met hers straight on, burning against the ice of the knight's gaze. As a result, the temperature of the room went back up to normal.

Integra nodded slightly; "Now, you know of the two Mossad officers currently on our grounds, correct?"

Erin simply nodded, and Integra looked away with a frown; "Well, as much as I hate to give the two of you a mission of any international importance, you two are the most competent officers who know of the false vampires who aren't too valuable that you can't be out of my sight. Jerusalem and Tel Aviv have been experiencing an outbreak of these creatures, and several cities under Iscariot's watch have been seeing a growing number of them. You will be going with Mossad back to Israel to provide support while they conduct their investigation, and you'll also assist in exterminating them. While in Israel Staff Sergeant Cohen will be your commanding officer, and you're to follow her orders as if they were my own. Understood?"

Erin had found the courage to look excited as she nodded and replied, "Yes ma'am. When are we leaving?"

"Now. The Mossad officers are down in the foyer, you'd best not keep them waiting," Integra replied, cracking a smirk as Erin barreled past her, cursing all the while. However, Jan lingered behind, glaring over his shoulder at Hellsing's fearless leader.

She met his gaze; "Something you'd like to say, Valentine?" A part of her shook its head at how blatantly she baited the ghost, but Integra ignored it. She was even better at holding grudges than her red-coated servant.

Jan narrowed his eyes and hissed, "You're a motherfuckin' sadist, you know that?" She couldn't stop her eyebrows from raising up; normally, name-calling wouldn't impress her, but given that _Jan Valentine _was calling _her _a sadist…

She stayed cool and collected as always; "I almost expected more than just petty insults, but then again, look who I'm talking to." Jan gritted his teeth, clenched his fists, tensed as if he was going to strike. But he didn't. He never did. He just whispered curses as he phased through the wall, following Erin to meet the two Israeli soldiers. And now that she was alone with no clear idea of what she should do now, her conscience jumped on her like a ravenous beast. It wasn't right, holding his grudge, being as hostile as possible to those two. They weren't like Walter, they hadn't betrayed her on purpose. And worst of all, Erin looked up to her even now.

She took a deep breath, inhale, exhale. No use dwelling on it, she supposed. There was a staggering amount of paperwork to be done, negotiations to go through, oh so many things to do…

When Erin reached the foyer, she found Staff Sergeant Cohen and Kya glaring across the room at Hans with so much intensity, animosity and sheer, unadulterated _hate_ she was sure he'd burst into flames, dissolve to ashes, then have those ashes burst into flames. Which was his own damn fault for not changing out of that uniform _ever_. He was bound to attract some glares in a goddamn Nazi uniform, but _nooooooo _it was 'comfortable' and 'the only thing he could find that fit him'. But that really didn't matter. What mattered was how Hans looked visibly uncomfortable for the first time in a long while. Regardless of his wardrobe, it was time to run interference for her friend.

With that thought, Erin moseyed between the two parties of this staredown with a large, purposely stupid-looking grin. The Israeli glares dissipated, and the two military women cocked an eyebrow each at her. The vampire heard the werewolf sigh in relief behind her; her grin became even larger and perhaps even less intelligent.

"Hey! Remember me? Me and Kya almost got into a scrap?" Erin asked brightly. Kya's eyebrow arched further at the word 'scrap'.

Cohen nodded; "Oh yeah. What was your name again?"

Erin shrugged her pale shoulders; "I don't think I ever told you, actually. I'm Erin Sorrel. Sir Hellsing's assigned me and," Erin paused and looked around before frowning and continuing, "Someone who's not here yet, to go back with you to Israel. We've had experience with the creatures you're fighting, so we'll hopefully be helpful!"

Cohen nodded with a smile and opened her mouth to speak right as Jan materialized grumpily through the ceiling, floated down, stomped over and forcefully leaned his head into Erin's back with a large sigh. The Israeli soldiers could do nothing but stare. Erin had hoped for a more dramatic entrance from him but, well, beggars can't be choosers.

"I fuckin' hate our boss," Jan growled.

Erin just kept her stupid grin, though the corners kept twitching out of control, and gestured to Jan; "Staff Sergeant Cohen, Miss Kya, this would be the other person coming with us, Jan Valentine. He's a ghost." Jan held up a hand and waved limply, the only measure of politeness Erin had managed to make him stick to.

Cohen was the first to stop staring blankly, grinning as she remarked, "A ghost. I guess it's true what they say, takes all kinds to fight the hordes of darkness."

Jan propped his chin on Erin's shoulder; "The head cunt upstairs said you two were movin' out right this motherfuckin' second, but I'm seein' a whole goddamn lot of standing around."

"Is that all you do?" Kya wondered out of nowhere.

Jan cocked his head to the side; "Is _what _all I do?"

"Use gratuitous amounts of curse words in every day speech and- I'm only hypothesizing- make incredibly crude jokes and references," Kya elucidated, furrowing her eyebrows.

The ghost shrugged; "No. Sometimes I'm asleep."

Kya clicked her tongue and shook her head; "That won't do. If you want to be properly crude and irreverent you need to add some artistry to your speech. Colorfully disgusting and horrifying metaphors, perhaps. However I think you should start slow and just start using unusual curses instead of normal ones. I happen to like 'slutbucket'."

Jan smirked wide, exposing too white, too sharp teeth; "Slutbucket, huh? You've just become my number one bitch, lady. … Well, actually more like my number two." On that note, Jan looped an arm around Erin's waist, and she just had to smile in a normal, intelligent way.

"Back to the point," Ariella interjected, "I don't know what your boss told you, but we planned on staying until Integra got back to us on who she'd be sending to help. I guess now that you're here, we can go."

The Israeli women started towards the door, but Jan and Erin paused to glare in the general direction of Integra's office before following them out. Hans watched them go from across the foyer, his carmine red eyes deceptively blank as they focused on the barely glistening vampire. Erin- the werewolf vigorously shook his head, trying to manually get thoughts of her out of there. There was no time for frivolous thoughts of a romance that, now that he thought of it, was probably doomed to never be a thing from the very start. He'd come into the foyer for reasons _other _than getting glared at by Israeli soldiers and swooning over sparkly vampires.

Reminded of his purpose, Hans turned to the wall behind him and delivered what was for him a soft kick to the base of it. A section of the wall swung inwards to reveal a stairway down into the dungeons, and he began his descent into the dank underbelly of the Hellsing manor. As he always did, he grimaced and pulled the collar of his greatcoat further up to cover his nose; the humans were lucky they didn't have sensitive noses, they couldn't smell the history of this place. However _he_ could smell the old blood of humans, vampires, fae, and creatures thought long lost to time and genocide. He could smell the harsh sting of silver, of cold iron and rust. But more than that, he smelled the overwhelming stench of rot and age. God only knows how the boy was handling having to sit down without a breath of fresh air…

Hans almost jumped when a pleasant voice greeted him; "Oh, hello Captain Gunsche. It's good to see you. Are you here to see Leon again?" The werewolf took a breath and turned to Esme, who was of course shooting a smile full of pure summer warmth his way. Dear _lord _that woman was an effective predator. Nothing reeled in helpless prey like a sunny smile and a motherly face. He nodded to her without a word- he didn't trust her to hear his voice. One-sided conversation was the best deterrent for this kind of predator.

She nodded right back; "He's sleeping right now. I'll let you wake him, I don't want to be the one who wakes the poor boy up. He needs his rest, but… I guess you need him awake that much more." Hans nodded again, then turned to the cell opposite. Curled up in the corner was a large, blond wolf near some tattered clothing; Hans spared a smile behind his collar as he watched the young wolf's legs twitch in a pantomime of running down prey. It'd been a long time since he'd slept that soundly himself. Regardless, Hans took a deep breath and gathered a force of will to send out his words upon.

They hit Leon's mind with stone-shattering force; "_Wake up_." The wolf let out a yelp, his eyes shooting open and his nails scratching at the ground as he desperately tried to get to his feet. When he eventually did, he turned to Hans and began growling with his hackles raised.

The captain shook his head and put a hand to his forehead; "_Calm down. I'm not here to hurt you._" That only served to make Leon's growls a bit louder.

The older werewolf cocked his head to the side and remarked, "_Things must be genuinely awful where you live if you can't trust the person who saved your life _and _is your same species._"

Leon let out a loud bark, and at the same time he finally replied on a surge of his own will; "_Prove it! We've been fooled before, show me I can really trust you're one of us!_"

Hans frowned so deeply you could see it without seeing his mouth; "_You honestly want me to transform? … Well, whatever. This will probably be the only proof you accept._"

A gale of wind came howling into the dungeon, bringing with it a thick grey fog. The fog rolled in and coiled around Hans as his body began to ripple and morph; the fog obscured him completely, leaving Esme and Leon with only the sounds of splintering bone and guttural growls. The fog whirled and whirled around Hans, slowly getting closer and closer to him until it merged with the fur spreading rapidly over his body. The fog did not clear, but it was content to roll on the ground as Hans' giant paws hit the floor. Standing in the place of the tall man was a dire wolf covered in fur that rolled along its body and disappeared into the air or trailed down his legs to join the fog on the floor; the only connection the wolf had to the Captain was the hue of its smoky fur and the pair of carmine red eyes in its massive skull. Leon's fur immediately flattened and his tail went straight between his legs. Esme tried to grab her jaw off the floor to no avail.

"_Is this enough proof for you?_" Hans wondered, his tail sweeping back and forth while he cocked his head to the side. Leon could only nod.

"_Good. I came down here in search of information. I'd like to hear what's going on from you before your pack comes charging in to get you_," Hans said, sitting down with enough abruptness to part the fog for a moment.

Leon looked at the floor; "_Don't hold your breath. I'm just one wolf, and a wolf who isn't even old enough to hunt with the adults. I doubt they'll come flying in filled with righteous fury to get me._"

Hans padded forward to look Leon in the eyes; "_Young One, when I was captured by the Soviets, my pack got themselves massacred trying to get me back. I wasn't even their breed, I could give the pack no children. And they still came for me, because I was theirs. If your pack has even an ounce of honor, they will come for you._" Leon brought his head back up, his tail hesitantly wagging back and forth.

Hans sat down again; "_Now, before I ask about your pack's situation, may I have your name?_"

"_It's… It's Leon._"

If a wolf could frown, Hans would've done it; "_Hm, so they've already given you an alias. Well, it doesn't matter; I won't be needing your True Name anytime soon. Leon, do you have any idea why your pack is hunting humans?_"

Leon looked down again, and replied; "_As far as I understand it, our pack is much smaller than it used to be. We've found lots of members of our pack dead or missing, and despite the best efforts of our alphas we haven't been able to find the ones responsible. With less adults, we have fewer pups, and now they've started taking pups and juveniles who wander away. With our numbers so low, we can't take on our normal prey. Humans are easy prey, and they're good enough for us to eat. Until things get back to normal, this is how we have to survive._"

Hans' ears flattened and he let out a low, rumbling growl; "_So that's how it is. And I thought things were finally getting better for us… You're sure this is what's happening, Leon?_"

Leon nodded, then let his tongue loll out in something of a grin; "_With all due respect, I wouldn't lie to someone who could most definitely tear me in half with one bite._"

Hans' ears stayed flat, but his tail swept merrily along the ground; "_Alright then, I'll hold you to that. I have to go and report this._" The fog coagulated around Hans once again, spinning much faster this time, and in mere moments Hans was back to his human form without a hair out of place.

He turned to leave, but spared a glance over his shoulder back at Leon; "_Please believe me, Child; I promise no harm will come to you here, as long as I'm around to help you._" With that, Hans turned on his heel and left the dungeon, leaving a grateful wolf and a confused vampiress in his wake.

**September 3rd, Japan**

For the first time in seven long years, Izaya Orihara was completely speechless. After a few moments of staring at his cellphone, he brought it back up to his ear and said, "And… You're _absolutely _sure that's where it is."

"Well, I opened my mind to hear any stray thoughts, and when I was right next to the sword I suddenly heard a bunch of whispering about love, cutting, and you, so you tell me what conclusion you'd make from hearing that," Seras replied on the other end.

Izaya pinched his brow; "Of course it'd be hidden in plain sight… Alright, we'll sack the place at midnight. I'll see if any of Saika's children can take down the security system."

"Got it. We'll meet you here." Seras hung up the phone and banished it with her shadow eye before turning to the white, modestly-sized building across the block; She looked over to Pip and remarked, "Honestly, I wouldn't have expected them to hide it in a museum either."

"I kept telling you, mignonette," Pip replied, pausing to blow some cigarette smoke, "You 'ave to look in zee obvious places. People 'ide zings zere because zey _know _you'll zink it's too obvious."

"Reversed reverse psychology?" Seras wondered, smiling up at Pip.

"Exactly," He replied with a grin, stomping out the freshly burned-down cigarette; "Zo, midnight?"

"Midnight," Seras replied. "Though I doubt it'll make much of a difference what time it is. They call New York the city that never sleeps but I'm pretty sure that's literal for this city."

"Well, we're in a quieter part of town, zo we may 'ave _zome _advantage later at night," Pip commented with a shrug; "But zat's zree hours from now. What do we do until zen?"

Seras put a hand to her chin; "Well, my phone gets internet, and there's that one show Master keeps telling me I should watch I can probably find online…"

Three hours later, Izaya walked up to find them cheering over Rainbow Dash performing the Sonic Rainboom and saving Rarity from certain death. He stared at them for a few moments before clearing his throat as loudly as possibly. They both jumped, Seras letting out a squeak and dropping her phone. As she scrambled to catch it, Pip also cleared his throat and lit a cigarette like he hadn't just been cheering emphatically about a show for little girls.

Izaya smirked; "I like that episode too; it's really quite touching how Rainbow Dash can find her strength when it really matters."

"Shut up," Pip grumbled mid-cigarette drag; "Zo, could you get zomeone to take out ze security system?"

Izaya sighed as loudly and dramatically as a man could; "Sadly, no. I've got a whole host of children for all occasions, but none of them can do the basic task of hacking into a security system. Thankfully, I've cut the two security guards inside at least once in the past. They should be no issue. Actually breaking past the outer security measures, though…"

Seras banished her phone again before skittering back over; "Well, I'm no use if you want precision work done, but I can get us past the front doors." Without waiting, Seras moved across the street and over to the museum with Izaya and Pip following behind her. She stopped at the large glass doors and pressed her left hand on the seam between them. Shadow leaked from her hand and filled the cracks between the door and the building; before Pip and Izaya got too close, the shadow matter blew outwards, the force of it sending the doors rocketing out of their frames and glass shattering into the street. Pip yelped out a French curse and shielded his face with his forearms, but Izaya just waved his hand, sending all the glass heading his way on a path around him. Izaya walked boldly ahead as Seras doubled back to help Pip pick glass out of his forearms.

Two security guards stationed immediately inside had unholstered their weapons and began to charge at the invading party, but when they caught sight of Izaya the two men stopped dead in their tracks. Their eyes went as wide as they could, their pupils shrunk down to pinpricks and their irises turned a luminescent bright red. They stood limp and slightly swaying, staring into space until Izaya stopped a foot in front of them. His eyes had also turned a bright red, though they were significantly less vacant.

He held out his hands palm up; "I'll be taking those guns, gentlemen." With limp arms, the guards dropped the pistols in Izaya's hands. The information broker turned them over in the light, looking at the make and model, then sneered at them.

"Ugh, American made. Not my style," Izaya muttered before holding them back out to the guards. "Take them back and dispose of them. You're better off without them anyway. Now, me and those two clowns need to get in there and take back something that belongs to me. What can you do about the security measures inside?"

The guard to Izaya's left replied in a stilted tone, "Secu_rity _is co_ntro_lled _by_ the m_ain _f_use_box, _b_ut _it's _behind a _do_or we don'_t _ha_ve _cl_ear_ance to ge_t _pa_st_."

Izaya shrugged; "Not a problem. Show us where the door is and the girl will do the rest. What else do you have for us?"

"W_e ca_n s_ho_w yo_u_ _th_e b_lue_prin_ts_ o_f_ _th_e _buil_din_g_. _Tha_t wi_ll_ _he_lp y_o_u _fin_d _you_r l_ost_ _ite_m, M_oth_er," the guard to Izaya's right answered.

Izaya nodded and called over his shoulder; "Are you two done? Let's get a move on, you're wasting moonlight." Seras glared at him as she threw the last of the glass onto the ground, then exchanged glares with Pip before they begrudgingly followed Izaya into the museum. When immediately inside, the guard on the left pointed to a door dark enough to blend into the wall on their left while the right guard stumbled over to his desk and, while staring perfectly ahead into space, rummaged about for the blueprints.

Izaya stood by the right guard, and called over to Pip and Seras, "Behind the door is the fusebox controlling the security systems for this building. Break in there, and after I get the blueprints we'll see what we can do about the security system." Seras glowered over her shoulder at Izaya before sending her shadows in to calmly remove the door from its hinges. Instead of a bombastic show of the door exploding inwards, the door just quietly crashed to the ground. It took the right guard a total of thirty seconds to find the blueprints, and when he did he nearly fell over as he handed them to Izaya.

Izaya smirked, beckoned the left guard over, and when both guards were in front of him he said, "Alright, listen. I want you to leave this place and find a man named Uematsu over in Shinjuku. You'll know where to find him; he is one of you, after all. Tell him you need to disappear, he'll handle it from there. Try your best; after all, your mother and I would be _so _broken up if you ended up in jail because of us."

With a halting "_Ye_s _mo_th_er_" from them, the guards left as quickly as their limp state could allow. Izaya casually studied the blueprints as he walked over just in time to catch Seras breaking open the fusebox.

"Juzt between us, what's _really _going to 'appen to zem?" Pip wondered, shooting Izaya a one-eyed glare.

Izaya's smile didn't falter for a moment; "Exactly what I said. They'll disappear. It's up to you to decide what that means, unless you'd like to shell out some cash for the truth."

Pip looked away with a grumble in French, and as he did Izaya suddenly scrunched up his nose; "Okay, what smells like death?"

Seras smiled as she let shadows leak into the fusebox; "You're probably smelling yourself." Regardless of her comment, Izaya stepped away from Pip, his nose still scrunched up. In seconds the fusebox began to sputter and spark, spitting out bolts of static with increasing intensity. At the thirty second mark the fusebox let out a bright shower of sparks that nearly scorched Seras, then completely shut off as smoke began to rise from it. Seras dusted off her hands with a satisfied smile.

"Internal security measures should be busted now," Seras proclaimed, turning to Izaya with a smug smile and her arms crossed over her chest, "All we need to do now is find Saika."

Izaya raised an eyebrow; "Well, at least when the police inevitably find us they won't know _what _screwed up the fusebox."

Seras' smile crashed down into a frown as she sputtered, "Wh- What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Nothing. Now, look at this," Izaya ordered, shoving the blueprints into Seras' hands. "See if you can find the room Saika was in on there." The draculina glared at Izaya once again, but begrudgingly studied the map with mismatched eyes.

It took her a few seconds, but when she found the room she turned the map around so Izaya could read it and pointed out the largest room on the ground floor; "That's it. Saika's at the very back of the room next to a set of samurai armor."

Izaya grinned, and this time it was genuine; "Excellent. Let's head in; no doubt we're not done jumping over hurdles." Seras nodded, and lead the way into the museum proper; sure enough, her blowing out the fusebox had taken out all power to the security systems, though it had also taken out any lights in the display cases. The only light telling the humans where to go was moonlight through the skylights. Though honestly Pip was the only one having any trouble, being the closest thing to a plain vanilla human there. They reached the large room, a display area full of antique Japanese weapons and armor, either in cases or hanging free with only ropes to protect them. On the very back wall, between a decorative sword once used by some warlord and elaborate samurai's armor, a perfectly ordinary-looking katana sat in a glass case. But when Izaya caught sight of it from twelve yards away at the entrance, his eyes went wide and flashed bright red once again.

He seemed to forget Pip and Seras were even in the room as he slowly advanced towards the case, eyes still wide and voice full of indescribable emotion as he whispered, "Saika… I've finally found you…" The hairs on the back of Seras' neck stood up and Pip's lighter inexplicably stopped working when Izaya was only five yards away.

"Izaya, don't go any closer-!" Seras was drowned out by a gust of wind and an ear-shattering sound akin to a bell ringing. Izaya skidded to a halt to cover his ears, but the wind didn't stop. The gale of wind rushed into the armor next to Saika, lifting the armor up and filling it out, allowing it to stand with the dignity and honor its late owner must have had. For a brief moment, the inside of the armor flashed bright green; the flash died down, but the glow persisted as Japanese characters made of bright green light scrawled themselves along the contours of the armor's interior. The wind subsided, but the armor still stood; it reached out one hand, and another gale brought one of the many katanas in the room tumbling through the air to land with its blade in the air and its hilt in the armor's hand. The armor swiped the sword downwards, wind following its swing and knocking Izaya backwards into Pip, sending them both tumbling to the ground.

Seras held back every urge to smile at Izaya's pain.

Izaya got to his feet, not bothering to help Pip do the same, and glared at the armor; "I had a feeling something like this would happen."

"It'z a wonder zis didn't 'appen to any innocent muzeum patrons," Pip grumbled as he scrambled to his feet, before reaching out his hand and calling, "A gun, please, Seras!"

"Right!" The draculina's hand flew up beneath her eye and made a fist; the Hellsing seal flashed quickly over Seras' head, dropping the Harkonnen and a Hellsing-issue assault rifle into Seras' waiting hands. She tossed the assault rifle to Pip and began to load her canon.

Izaya fished a knife out of his coat and called, "Keep it busy while I get to Saika! No doubt you won't be able to kill that thing with what you have. Keep its eyes off me!" For once, Pip and Seras were glad to follow orders. Pip opened fire, spraying bullets with reckless abandon at the suit of armor. The bullets either plinked off the armor or buried into it; either way, it only served to make the armor come after them in earnest, sword brandished for the charge. Seras opened fire right then, one of the Harkonnen's massive bullets cutting through the air and towards the inside of the armor's helmet. The armor didn't slow down, swinging its sword and chopping the bullet in half with another blade of wind. Seras' eyes widened and she just barely dodged before the blade of air could slice _her _in half; the two halves of the bullet made contact with the walls and exploded on impact, rocking the building and nearly bringing a piece of the skylight down on Izaya's head.

"Well, I suppose incendiary rounds were a bad idea then," Seras whispered, but she barely had time to do so. The armor was almost upon her, its sword poised to slice her head clean off her shoulders. Quick as she could Seras leapt around the armor and got behind it, leaving it to swing into nothing. She summoned another round from her shadow eye, and without even needing to ask Pip leapt out from behind a display case and let out a volley of cover fire. The bullets drew the armor's attention, and it swung its sword once more to sent another blast of air Pip's way. The frenchman was a second too late, the wind hitting him in a blast of concussive force and throwing him into the wall. Pip's cry of pain was cut off as the mercenary coughed up blood, but he pried himself off the wall with a growl and opened fire again. The armor brought its sword up again only for another incendiary round to spear its left arm and explode on impact, sending the appendage up in flames.

Another deafening bell chimed as the armor dropped its sword to clutch at the "wound"; the green script in the armor glowed slightly less bright, and when the armor turned around to face Seras, something in her _knew _she'd pissed it off. It retrieved its sword much faster than before and made a stabbing motion in her direction; a surge of freezing cold air hit her with all the force of an out of control aircraft carrier, sending her crashing through the back wall and into the next room over. Izaya ducked as the draculina flew over him, then turned with wide eyes to the armor. The armor spotted him just as he spotted it, and it charged after him, green script flickering desperately inside it. Izaya cursed under his breath; of course it just _had _to notice him when he was two yards away from Saika- the armor paused and let out another bell-chime of pain as a lucky shot from the Frenchman sent its right leg hurtling through the air.

Izaya grinned and threw his knife; it stuck right in the center of the armor's chest, pausing it for a moment more. Izaya's grin reached his ears as he exclaimed, "Fira!" A small plume of flame erupted from the knife's hilt and spread along the armor's torso. The bell rang, louder and faster than ever before as the armor burned, but still charged towards Izaya. The necromancer didn't give it any time to grab him, crossing the distance between him and his sword and smashing his elbow into the glass. The case around her shattered, and with no regard to the pain in his elbow, Izaya grabbed hold of Saika's hilt.

A torrent of whispers poured into his mind the minute his hand touched the sword. An ear-splitting cascade of voices erupted through him, and oh dear _lord how he'd missed it_; Saika roared incessantly in his brain and overpowered all other noise, her blaring murmurs thundering through him. The hilt was fire, the hilt was thunder, searing and shocking him as he held onto it for dear life and rode out the uproarious reunion. He was ignorant of everything, of the clamorous bullets spraying from Pip's rifle as he tried in vain to slow the armor, of the chiming bell of the furious animated armor, of Seras Victoria picking herself up and running to fight with her comrade; his world, all sensation was limited to resonant calls of the sword. His eyes flashed bright red and stayed bright red as he felt the tide of magical energy, the voices of Saika, as he felt pure sensation ride through his arms and pulse through his body with pealing intensity. He grinned and pressed the hilt of the demon sword to his mouth.

"I missed you too, Saika," he whispered, before turning on his heel with his sword brandished to face the armor still charging at him. He grinned, the expression pure and real for the first time since the sword left his hands.

He built up his will and channeled it along the sword, and with a powerful thrust forward, Izaya roared, "_Firaja!_" Fire came storming out of Saika's blade in gigantic tongues of flame, engulfing the armor and reducing it to ashes. The fire kept erupting out of the sword, racing from the air to the walls and advancing through the whole building. Seras' eyes opened as wide as possible at the tempest of fire tearing towards her; with only a loud yelp of fear, Seras grabbed Pip's arm in a firm grip and yanked him along behind her as she bolted out of museum at blurring speeds. She leapt through the remains of the double doors and landed in a roll, slamming Pip on the ground by accident. Thankfully, she only dislocated his shoulder and caused him to shout "_Connard!_" at the top of his lungs. Izaya came leaping out after her, riding the force of the fire and letting out crowing laughter.

Izaya landed perfectly on his feet just a few feet in front of the Hellsing operatives, spun Saika around a few times, then held her hilt back up to his mouth once more as he said, "I really mean it, it's been _too _long. It was careless of me to even think of letting you out of my sight… Ha, yes, I know you've been anxious to spread the love yourself. It's not any fun when the daughter blades get to do it." Izaya continued to yammer on to the blade while Seras got to her feet and helped Pip to his. She popped his shoulder back into place (causing Pip to shout French obscenities for an innumerable time) before glaring at Izaya.

"Well that was certainly _subtle_," Seras snapped. "I know Hellsing isn't known for the most quiet operations, but even we know not to set the building on fire quite like _that_!" Izaya just kept talking to the sword. If he heard her, then her certainly wasn't showing it. Seras huffed and folded her arms over her chest, frowning and tapping her foot as she waited for Izaya to _finally _pay attention to her.

Pip raised his eyebrow and leaned over to Seras; "Zo… 'e was zerious about ze zord 'aving a mind of its own?"

"I don't think he'd ever talk so much with something that couldn't talk back," Seras replied, rolling her eyes. Just then, Izaya twirled around on his toes and walked over to the two Hellsing operatives, holding Saika out blade-first to them.

He smiled and said, "She wants to say hello. Not to Seras, though. Sorry, but she kind of hates anything that isn't human."

Pip glared at Izaya; "Don't you fucking ztab me wiz zat zing-"

Izaya's smile fell and he arched a brow; "Do you honestly think I'd be dumb enough to stab you in front of your friend? Just touch the blade. You don't even have to touch the sharp side." Pip's eye darted between Izaya and the blade several times, then with copious amounts of caution Pip reached out and laid his finger on the flat side of the blade-

_cutcutizayaucutLOVEizayaLOVE LOVEucutcutHellocuthumanschu mansuhumanstcizayauLOVhumans Etcutcizayauthumanscutcutcut cutcutizayacutcutcutcuthuman scutcutcutcuLOVELOVizayaELOV Etcutcutcutcutcutcutcutcuiza yatcutcutcutcutcutLOVEcutcut cutcutLOVEizayahumansLOVE-_

Pip wrenched his hand away with a shout, leaping nearly a foot back from the sword and putting Seras between him and the cursed blade. Seras glared at Izaya, whose eyes were wide in what was perhaps the first time he'd felt honest surprise.

"Never make me do zat again," Pip hissed, eye narrowed into a slit as he glared at Izaya.

Izaya shrugged the remark off, and as he slid Saika into his forearm (nearly eliciting more jumps and surprised yelps from the Hellsing operatives), Izaya remarked, "Well, introductions aside, you've held up your end of the bargain. Normally, this would be the part where I screw you over. However…" Izaya paused to smirk, the expression back to its mask-like beginnings, "You got Saika back for me. And I can't deny that your quest is enticing. I think Ikebukuro is long overdue for a break from me."

Seras' red eyes smoldered at him, and she crossed the distance between them; "Alright, you're with us. But don't think for a _second _you're in any position to screw us ov-"

Izaya's smirk gained another, mysterious dimension; "Don't think for a second _you_ are in any position to make threats, Seras Amelia Victoria." Seras stopped dead still, eyes wide as his mouth poured over every syllable of her name. He said it the exact way she said it, down to every inflection, and as it rolled through the black wizard's lips she felt a ripple of foreign power run through her body, squeezing gently at her, teasing at the notion of control and holding dominion's glimmering silver blade over her neck.

He had her True Name.

Oh _shit_.

Izaya walked just past her and stopped a few inches behind her, his grin all the more sinister in the light of the burning museum; "So, where to next?"

_Wow, shit, call out the fuckin' history books I finally finished something and wrote a chapter for a longfic. Hot damn_


	4. This Is My Town

**Fandom:** Hellsing, Twilight, Durarara!, Bayonetta- screw it, EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN.

**Title:** Hostilities _or_ Alliances 2: Electric Boogaloo

**Rating:** T

**Pairing(s):** More than I can think to list

**Genre:** Adventure, Drama, Romance, Humor

**Warning(s):** Blood, violence, gore, sexual themes, language, OOC, OC's

**Dedicated:** Master of the Boot, my mentor in all things fanfiction who has helped me become the writer I am now.

**Summary:** It's been two years, nearly three- London is only partially rebuilt, the vampire queen She is on the loose, dens of false vampires have been popping up around the world, Germany is experiencing a werewolf epidemic, Seras and Pip are traveling the world in search of a necromancer/witch/Unseelie fae, Rip Van Winkle is sporting a fedora, and Alucard watches My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. We're in for quite a ride.

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing except for the plot and all OCs.

**Author Notes:** I am immensely glad this story is taking place in 2011 because I do _not _want to touch the current stuff going down in Israel and Palestine. Also, a note: I have come to the personal epiphany that I find the moniker "No-Life King" stupid, stilted, and probably a translation error. So, despite the iconic nature of the title, I will be referring to Alucard as the _Undead _King instead of the No-Life King. Because, frankly, it just makes more sense to me. _Also_, since the location of Vigrid is fairly vague in Bayonetta (they sort of imply it's in central Europe around Germany, but given the architecture and climate of the city proper it seems more at home in Italy), I did some guesswork and put it just south of Naples, basically in the area occupied by real world city Castellammare di Stabia. I'll have more to say on the matter of Vigrid if I can't get to it in the story, but I'll save it for the end of the chapter. Also I apologize for my poor descriptive skills :U

**Chapter IV - This Is My Town**

**September 4th, Israel**

The sun was just starting to set on the so-called Promised Land.

On the ground, a Mossad-issue SUV was rumbling along Israel's Highway 1, having left Tel Aviv slightly over forty minutes ago and coming upon the city limits of Jerusalem at a clipped pace. Inside, Ariella steepled her fingers in front of her face, taking a nice long look at the ghost across from her. At the moment, she was regretting asking the ghost for his and Erin's stories more than she'd ever regretted something in her whole life.

Ariella blew some curly hair out of her eyes and said, "So, let me get this straight. You and Erin worked for Millennium…"

Jan nodded as he stared out the car window; "Yep."

"Then you stormed the Hellsing Manor with your brother and Erin's friend, both of whom _also _worked for Millennium."

"E-yup."

"And you killed a huge amount of Hellsing soldiers-"

"'Killed pretty much all of them, actually."

"… You killed almost _all _of Hellsing's soldiers and caused massive amounts of property damage. Then you were killed, Erin was turned into a vampire by her dying friend-"

"Still don't have a fuckin' _clue _why the bitch did that."

"Mmmhm. And despite everything I just mentioned… Sir Hellsing recruited Erin."

Jan leaned back in the seat (part of his back going _into _the seat) with a shrug; "'Ey, I don't get it either. I think Big Red thought Erin was hot or "interesting" or some shit and he begged the head cuntbitch to keep her. I was in Hell chillin' with Hitler and Ghengis Kahn while that shit was going down."

"Hmmm… Yeah, he definitely would've been a big hit with the people down there," Kya mumbled, then narrowed her eyes at Erin; "Don't touch your skin. You'll smear the makeup." Erin let out a little groan as she moved her hand away from her face. On the plane ride over, Kya had personally applied light, matte, flesh-toned foundation over Erin's crystalline skin. As the setting sunlight poured into the vehicle through the windows, it cast harsh shadows and few highlights on Erin's just a bit _too _opaque skin. Despite Kya's best efforts, though, Erin's skin still shone, but only enough to create a subtle reflection on the car's interior.

Erin leaned her head back against the seat and groused, "_Ugh_, why did it have to be _makeup_? Couldn't I have just worn a parka or something? This stuff's making me itch, and I didn't even know I _could _itch anymore."

Kya rolled her eyes; "This is the only way you can disguise yourself in this part of the world. Wearing a parka while the weather's still warm is just begging for attention, and even then the people in Israel are more prone to question stark white skin and red eyes than the people of England. Trust me; part of Kherev's duty is making sure that the vampires who really do want to live an honest life can, and after trying everything we found this was the only thing that really worked. And beyond that, the snipers outside of Kherev's main base are trained to shoot anything that has red eyes and sparkles. This is for your protection as well as our ability to keep a low profile."

Erin fixed her hungry, muddy red eyes on the ceiling in a glower; "I still don't like it."

Kya scowled back at her; "You don't have to _like _it, you just have to tolerate it."

Ariella grinned and added, "Don't forget you're an endangered species, Officer Sorrel. Wouldn't want to go and make the Unstet any more of a rarity than they already are, eh?" Erin smiled the trademarked Unstet sickly sweet smile before flipping her the barely shining bird. Ariella let out a hearty bark of a laugh and turned her eyes back to Jan.

"I like her," Ariella remarked, leaning back in her seat, "She's got spirit."

Jan grinned his customary too-wide grin; "You bet your fuckin' ass she does. I wouldn't 'ave stuck around if she didn't."

Ariella was about to reply when the driver spoke up: "Staff Sergeant Cohen, Officer David, we're approaching Jerusalem city limits. Should I contact the director?"

The staff sergeant shook her head with a smirk; "Don't drive and talk at the same time, Soldier. I'll call him." Ariella pulled out her cell phone and Jan raised an eyebrow at Kya's choice in surname. Kya just shrugged while her shadow let out a silent, rolling laugh from the pit of its stomach. Erin leaned over with a smile to get a better view of the oncoming city from her window, beaming in earnest for the first time since they touched down in Tel Aviv. In a move borrowed directly from the Undead King, Erin made a little noise of satisfaction before pulling her cell phone out and wordlessly sending a text message.

Kya attempted a smile and asked, "Who did you text?"

Erin rolled her shoulders in a bouncy little shrug and let out a jaunty chuckle; "Just a friend."

Jan turned to her, casual posture betrayed by the naked concern on his face; "You _know_ you're not gonna get a reply at this rate, right babe?"

The half-breed's shoulders tightened, but there was still real warmth in her voice as she replied, "I know, I just… I want 'em to know what I'm up to." The SUV drove over the city limit, and as of that moment the group was officially in the holy city of Jerusalem. Erin sat up straight almost immediately, her smile dropping and her brows knitting together.

Jan's eyebrows went up; "You okay?"

Erin blinked rapidly, shaking her head a bit to manually clear it; "Yeah, I'm… Yeah. I just thought I… heard something," her lips stretched upward in a smirk, "Must've been imagining it."

Ariella hung up and reported, "Alright, we're in the city. It'll be a little bit before we get to HQ in Givat Ram, so we can't stretch our legs just yet." Jan grumbled curses at the ceiling, Kya tried to hide her disappointment that her shadow gave away by deflating and leaning backwards in a pantomime of defeat. Erin, however, just stared out the window and tried not to make it obvious that a piece of her was _incredibly _grateful for their not leaving the car.

It may have just been her sitting in the car too long, but as the SUV wound through traffic, Erin felt as though the roads were narrower than they looked. Her eyes twitched in their sockets; to her, it seemed every car was trying to block their advance, keep them from getting any further. It may have just been the wind, but the trees all seemed to be reaching inward, reaching almost like long fingers aiming to pluck their vehicle off of the road. The buildings seemed to reach up farther than they looked. The shadows seemed harsh, inky black things, slinking along everything they could attach themselves to. The lights of the city felt too bright, blazing, glaring enough to make her squint for the first time in years and shield her eyes behind a curtain of obsidian hair.

She could feel her stomach somersaulting, and in an attempt to calm it Erin looked to her traveling companions. Ariella was staring out the window, rapping her foot on the ground impatiently. Kya too was looking out the window, hands folded politely in her lap as her shadow sat silent for once. Jan was absently looking out the window from the corner of his eye. The half-breed frowned out the window- the trees were reaching ever inwards with sharpening talons, the road was slimming down even faster, more and more cars were clumping around them, blocking their way, the buildings grew up and inward, caging them in, the shadows were deeper as they crawled over everything in their path, the _light_- Erin's eyes shot back to her knees. This made no sense. Why was she the only one who was getting nauseous just looking at the city?

Something _thunked_ against the underside of the car. Tires screeched and the SUV abruptly lurched forward. Nobody had time to catch their breath or even swear before the car went slamming into the sedan just ahead of it, having enough momentum to _bounce _off the back of the car and hurtle end over end through the air. The SUV came crashing down into the asphalt, shattering all the windows, sending spiderwebbed cracks through the pavement and halting all cars for at least five yards around.

Erin was caught upside down with her back against the cement, the tumble and her landing having smudged and wiped away some of the makeup on her skin; as her companions expediently set about kicking their way out of the car's crumpled doors and using ghost powers to phase their trapped driver out, she just stared at the ceiling for a few seconds. She'd been dazed, but in a few seconds (slow by Unstet standards) Erin was able to blink the fog out of her mind and crawl out of the car.

She stood up straight and rubbed her sore head before turning to her comrades; "Yo, is everyone alright?"

Jan crossed the distance between them and grinned; "Yeah we're fine. And I think the fucker in the sedan's alright too. You're the only one who even looks sore." Erin blinked slowly, then looked to the Kherev operatives- Ariella was busy investigating where they'd flipped, Kya was helping the slightly dizzy driver of the Sedan out of the slightly destroyed car, and their driver was busy reporting the accident to Kherev's director over the phone.

The half-breed blinked a few times more, then mumbled, "Well… how about that."

Erin snapped out of her reverie as Ariella called out, "Hey, Sorrel! Valentine! Get over here, you might want to see this." Erin and Jan shared a quick raised eyebrow before moving to Ariella's side at a trot.

When they got there, the staff sergeant pointed to the ground with her thumb; "Does that look the least bit odd to you?" Erin looked where she was directed, and when her eyes stopped her eyebrows nearly collided with her hairline. A piece of the street about the same size as Jan's foot had separated from the asphalt around it to stand perfectly straight.

"You think this is what we got snagged on?" Erin wondered, crouching down to examine the piece of asphalt.

"Or it shot up to meet us," the Israeli woman growled, glaring off into the distance. Erin and Jan cocked their heads to the side, but Ariella was already walking down the road; the two undead had no choice but to follow.

She started barking out orders as quickly as she could; "Levi! Stay with the civilian. Work things out here. Kya, Sorrel, Valentine! With me. HQ isn't far and the sun's going down. We don't have time to waste, let's go!" The two other members of Kherev replied with perfect military affirmatives while Erin called out a "Yeah!" as she tried to catch up. Jan of course replied with a grumbled, "Jeez, fine. Bitch." The four of them fell in step (technically three, since Jan had given up walking and was floating along beside them, invisible to the general public) with each other, and as the two Israeli women muttered to each other about how "this" hadn't happened since Kya had shown up, Erin looked around at the city.

A slight pressure fell on her shoulders- as if someone had their hands on her shoulders and was making a concentrated effort not to push down too hard. She could feel her eyes twitching as the trees clawed at the air, raking their way towards her. She looked up; the relatively small buildings had become skyscrapers filling up narrow roads that were closing ever inward- she didn't breathe, but she was finding it hard to draw in fresh air. Erin looked down- the shadows were following her as the sun sunk lower and lower into the sky. She didn't look up; she knew she'd just find light bright enough to blind her.

She didn't know how or why, but something was making it physically painful for her to be in the city.

Her ears picked up on it before her eyes; a sharp _crack_, the sound of stone separating from stone. Erin whirled around and leapt backwards, her feet leaving the ground just in time for the top corner of a building to fall and smash the sidewalk she'd been standing on into pieces. Civilians screamed, Jan let out a swear, Kya and Erin stared at the piece of building with eyes wide.

Ariella just growled, "Damn it, we need to move fast. Come on guys! We have a job to do!"

Erin spun back around, eyes wide and eyebrows furrowed; "What?! But- a piece of _building _just fell-"

"I'll explain later," Ariella snapped, "We're a block away from headquarters. You'll be safe in there." Erin couldn't protest, since Ariella was already sprinting down the sidewalk with Kya just a bit behind her; she frowned at the woman's back, but began jogging to keep up. One building away from the headquarters, all three supernatural beings heard a cracking sound right above Erin's head. Kya couldn't even call out in warning before an exceptionally sharp tree branch broke away from the tree, plummeting towards Erin's head. Jan gritted his teeth with a curse, grabbing Erin's arm. He flung her forwards- pulling a yelp from the half-breed's throat- and sent her tumbling to land beside Kya. The branch hurtled through Jan's body and landed harmlessly on the ground. Erin almost got up, but a sharp whistling hit her ears; she hit the deck just in time for a bullet to come screaming in. Kya caught it out of the air. Everyone but Ariella gaped at the feat.

Kya calmly held the bullet up to the light, examined it, then turned to Ariella; "It's an assault rifle round. Probably from a firing range across town. It was at just the right height to hit Miss Sorrel in the head."

"_God _why couldn't we have gotten here earlier," Ariella hissed, slamming the doors to Kherev HQ open and stalking inside. Jan, Kya and Erin paused to listen for more threats, and when none seemed apparent they all followed after the staff sergeant. Erin stood up straight; the pressure disappeared off her shoulders as she crossed the threshold. Nothing in the building's main foyer looked like it was trying to kill her or scare her away; the potted plants were just sitting there, the dimensions of the room weren't changing, the shadows were soft and gradual, the light was only bright enough to make any of her showing skin glimmer harmlessly. It just looked like a normal room. Erin and Ariella let out sighs of relief at the same time.

Ariella took off her sunglasses and turned to Erin; "Alright, now we've got time. See, Sorrel, the city-"

A young man in military fatigues came running in, nearly bumping into Ariella as he exclaimed, "Staff Sergeant! I know you just got back, but we've got trouble! It's another vampire, we think a fake one. She's killed a civilian already."

The staff-sergeant put her sunglasses back on and pinched her brow; "Where?"

"The Old City, ma'am," he replied, "Jewish Quarter."

Kya put a hand to her forehead while her shadow let out a frustrated roar; "It's bound to be worse there…"

"Well we can't just stay here," Ariella snapped, "Alright, we need to get out to the Jewish Quarter and _fast_. We're doing this quick and dirty, but we're getting this bitch _alive_. Got it?!"

This time everyone responded with a resounding, "Yes ma'am!"

**September 4th, Vatican City**

Kallenna stood with her back to the window, shielding her phone from the outside light so she could read the text message on the screen. … Well, she'd already done the reading part some time ago. Now she was just sitting here staring at the screen, letting her eyes roll over the few words of the message until she got sick of it.

_From: Erin_

_dude! im in jerusalem. u evr been 2 jerusalem? this place looks cool. wish u could see it w/ me._

The priestess leaned her head back against the window. How many text messages did she have from Erin that were pretty much this exact same message in different words? It had to be hundreds by this point. They came at any random hour of the day, sometimes close together and sometimes spread out. If she was in some place she'd never been, Erin would lead with that before she told Kallenna how much she missed her. Sometimes, she'd just send a message begging in under one-hundred-and-sixty characters for Kallenna to forgive her.

Kallenna hadn't replied to a single one.

She deleted the message and slid the phone into the pouch on her belt, then turned to the window. Honestly, for how seriously she'd taken it being broken, Kallenna didn't remember the promise very well. The letter of it was lost to time, though she did remember being absolutely terrified of everything around her, terrified enough to grab Erin's hands and anchor her friend to the spot as she blurted out the promise and beg her friend to agree to it. Someone in Iscariot had apparently taken it as seriously as she had, putting her two friends under surveillance until the night Kutsavi was turned. It hadn't been until after London was razed that she learned neither Erin or Kutsavi had consented to their transformation.

But she'd stopped speaking to Erin all the same.

Kallenna ran a hand through her hair, sighing from deep in her chest. Two and a half years now she'd held this grudge. And even now she couldn't tell if she wanted to keep at it or not.

She shook her head and muttered, "No use dwelling on it." She cracked a smile as she looked back out the window; it was too nice a day for introspection. Doubtless she'd find most of the orphans outside playing, and watching over children was perhaps the number one way to get one's mind of oneself. With that thought placed squarely in the center of her mind, Kallenna strode out of the orphanage with as much bounce as she'd allow into her step. As she'd suspected, most of the children were playing in the orphanage's backyard, so she only bumped into one or two little ones as she made her way out. She made sure they didn't get away from her without a few sunny smiles and some hair-ruffleings. As such, her mood had substantially lifted itself by the time she got out into the fresh air.

When she heard high-pitched whimpers and jeers being exchanged not too far away, her mood went crashing down.

Kallenna turned on her heel to the source of the offending noises; two little boys (one with red hair, one blond) had cornered a little girl with darker skin and were tugging at the scarf wrapped around her head. Big salty tears were running down the girl's cheeks, the girl standing her ground as best she could while trying to wrench their hands away from her. Kallenna's eyes set themselves alight as she charged over to the scene. The priestess grabbed the boys by the back of their shirts and tore them away from the girl with as much force and precision as she used against threats to the church. The boys went silent in absolute terror while the girl continued to whimper, pulling her scarf down as far as it could go.

Blue eyes now blazing, Kallenna pointed to the side of the orphanage and shouted, "Both of you! Up against the wall! _Now!_" Disobeying her never even crossed the boy's minds; it took them less than five seconds to flatten themselves against the wall. They were more pale than ever, eyes still fixed on the young woman who'd just put the fear of God in them. Kallenna jabbed her finger towards the ground in an indication to them to stay put, then knelt down next to the girl with a gentle smile. She adjusted the girl's scarf so it sat right, then wiped the tears from her eyes. It was then that Kallenna noticed the rug just beside the girl.

"Are you alright, Nadiyya? Were you praying, sweetie?" Kallenna asked, her tone as soothing as she could make it.

Nadiyya struggled to stop sniffling; "Y-yeah. Marcus and Sean, th-they came up and started calling me a- a- a heathen. They pushed me over an-and tried to pull off my scarf, an-"

Kallenna patted the little girl's shoulders and said, "It's okay. They're not gonna do anything else to you on my watch. Come on, you finish up praying, alright sweetheart?" Nadiyya sniffled a little bit more, but nodded, and when she could compose herself she turned back to her prayer rug and began her prayers again. As the little girl prayed, Kallenna stared down the two boys, nailing them to the spot with her heated glare. They stared back at her, ashen and mute (except for Sean, the redhead, who was struggling in vain against the urge to burst into tears of pure terror).

When Nadiyya had finished and was rolling up her rug, Kallenna knelt back down and beamed her way; "'Kay, tell ya what: I know for a _fact_ that Sister Beatrice is in the kitchen right now. How about you go ask her to get you something sweet? Tell her it's an order from the Pope himself." Nadiyya found it in her to smile, giggled, then ran off into the orphanage, shouting her thanks over one shoulder. Kallenna waved to her, then dropped all pretense of happiness and stomped over to the boys. Sean lost out on the battle against tears.

Kallenna placed her hands squarely on her hips and admonished, "Alright, now for _you_. Marcus, Sean, I am very disappointed in you! I know it's always surprising to see someone different, but we need to _respect _people who are different than us. These people have a lot to teach, and attacking them will only make them close up on you."

The boys looked to each other, eyebrows raised in pure bafflement. That was _not _a good sign.

Marcus turned back to her, his head cocked to the side; "But don't you and Father Anderson fight heathens?"

Kallenna narrowed her eyes; "Nadiyya is a little girl. She may not be a Catholic, but she's _not_ a heathen."

Sean just blinked at her; "I thought a heathen was someone who wasn't Catholic…" Kallenna's throat dried up, and only the fact that she was trying to look authoritative was keeping her from gaping like a goldfish. … God damn it, was she going to have to _lie _to a pair of _children_?

It took her a minute, but she found the will to speak again; "We go after people who are hurting others- who may just _happen_ to not be Catholic- and monsters. Nadiyya wasn't hurting anyone. If someone is minding their own business, no matter what they believe you _leave them alone_. Understood?" The two boys nodded hastily, and Kallenna had to hold back a sigh of relief. Despite that stretching of the truth, they were at least still scared of her.

She nodded resolutely; "Good. Now for your-" Her cellphone buzzed in its pouch, and with a grumbled swear Kallenna fished it out and flipped it open to find a text message waiting for her.

_From: Yumie_

_hey maxwells askng 4 u get over here_

The blond ground out a soft "Son of a", then glowered down at the boys; "Well, it seems I can't punish you myself right now." Marcus and Sean let out sighs of relief.

She then closed her eyes with a razor-edged smile; "But don't get too relaxed. Anderson will _definitely _hear about this." The boys went white, and hope drained for their eyes. These were no longer the faces of little boys caught misbehaving. These were the faces of men who knew their end was upon them. And they were also the faces of boys dramatizing their future punishment, but that didn't make the preceding statements untrue by any stretch. Sean shed a single tear.

Kallenna left for Iscariot headquarters with a sour taste her mouth and a pit in her stomach, still turning that lie and the confused faces of the children over and over in her mind.

**September 4th, Vigrid**

The high speed train into Vigrid glided along the tracks. The journey from Bari all the way to the other side of the country had begun a little over an hour ago, but the station into the "city of deja vu" was nearly in sight. In the second car from the front, the ornate luxury of the train was ruined for one Pip Bernadotte because he couldn't smoke in it. He was _also _lamenting his window seat having been stolen. The Hellsing operatives (and Izaya) had situated themselves as close to the door as possible, Izaya on the aisle and Seras (currently in a poncho borrowed from Erin) at the window. The poor mercenary was stuck in between them. Izaya had been staring ahead into space the whole trip while Seras was currently asleep, her face pressed to the window and the beautiful young draculina snoring like a chainsaw. Traveling over the ocean had stressed her out enough that the only cure was an hour long nap.

Pip leaned his head back, groaning to himself, "Fucking zurgeon general…"

Izaya smirked and remarked, "Oh come now, Captain. You can survive without that _dirty _habit for a few more minutes, can't you?"

Pip narrowed his eye at the black wizard; "Zays zee guy 'oo waz uzing fire spells to light my zigarettes while we waited for our flight out of Japan." Izaya merely smiled, focusing his eyes ahead once more. Sunlight was replaced by blue lights along dark walls as the train slid into the tunnel, and the intercom fizzled to life, playing a pre-recorded message informing all passengers that the Vigrid stop was fast approaching.

Pip elbowed Seras awake, and after letting out a few tired groans the blond asked, "What time is it?"

"Five o'clock, I'm afraid," Pip sighed in reply. Seras threw her head back and let out a mighty groan, which from Seras sounded less mighty more adorable.

Izaya wrinkled his nose as the train came to graceful stop in the Vigrid station; "Remind me, _why _are we going through _Vigrid_? I thought you'd want to avoid that place like the plague when traveling with a vampire."

Seras shrugged as she summoned a pair of sunglasses from her shadow eye and put them on; "Well, we would go through Rome, but even though Iscariot's a friendly rival now they might not like us passing through their city with _you _in tow. The best thing is to stop in Bari, go through Vigrid to Naples and fly out of there."

Vigrid station was all elaborate stonework in the walls and floors, vaulted ceilings and tall windows; the interior of the station was almost entirely grayscale (the walls all unpainted stone and the floors either the same, black and white tile, or stones of varying shades of black and white cobbled together into a floor), but the setting sunlight from the windows painted a gentle orange tint on the place. If there was a design anywhere in the building, chances were it was something ornate and vaguely floral or an emblem of a sun. White flags with a golden sun on them had hung from the ceilings some time ago, but they'd all mysteriously disappeared a few days after the London attacks- just after Vigrid had exited its own crisis.

As they exited the train car, Pip looked over his shoulder to Seras and asked, "Ze zun's gonna go down before too long. Should we bozer changing out zat parka for zomezing lezz bulky?"

Seras shook her head; "It's not that far a walk to the other station, I can manage it wearing this thing. By the time we reach Naples the sun will be down," Seras paused to frown, "And it'll save me the indignity of having to find somewhere to put on sunscreen."

Izaya scrunched up his nose again; "_Sunscreen_? Really?"

The draculina shrugged; "Well, it works. I'm quite a bit less on fire when I wear it."

Izaya shook his head with a sigh, pulled a black marker out of his coat pocket, and closed the distance between him and Seras; "Give me your arm."

Seras narrowed her eyes and pulled her arm back; "I _need _my arm, thank you very much!"

The necromancer raised an eyebrow, corner of his mouth slowing reaching upwards; "You _really_ need to do something about this paranoia of yours, Miss Victoria. Just hold your arm out for me."

The young vampiress narrowed her eyes even more as she reluctantly held her arm out, but not before muttering, "It's not paranoia when you've got _reason _for it…" Izaya smoothly ignored her and took the cap off his marker. With a bit of will channeled into the marker, Izaya pushed up Seras' sleeve and drew several Japanese characters down from the crook of her elbow to her wrist.

Izaya finished off the last character and whispered, "_Sealga_." When he moved the marker away, the characters on Seras' arm flashed with a low purple light before laying dormant again. "There. You should be able to walk around in the sun without that ridiculous parka." She glared back at him, but hesitantly removed her hood… and anticlimactically did _not _catch on fire. A beaming grin threatened to split Seras' face in two as she quickly shed the parka and banished it with her shadow eye. Izaya's smirk seemed to have cemented itself for the moment while Pip's eyebrows were currently trying to merge with his hair.

Izaya leaned in just a little closer; "Now, what do we say to people who help us out of a tough spot?"

Seras' grin wilted back down into a glower; "I _was _going to thank you, but if you're going to be like _that_-"

Windows shattered. Glass rained down as… _noises _rang through the air over the people panicking. Honestly, the only way to describe these noises was that they resembled a corrupted recording of bird calls spliced with someone speaking a language that had remained unheard by human ears for centuries. The Hellsing operatives (and Izaya) spun towards the broken window above the main exit into Vigrid, looking for the source of the commotion. When they spotted it, even Izaya stood petrified at the sight.

Standing in the window was a vaguely humanoid, winged figure holding a spear with a circular blade. Truly the only humanoid thing about it was the fact that it was bipedal. In reality the creature was more avian- the creature's four-fingered hands and two-toed feet both ended in golden talons, its wings were topped with golden plates, and its long, stooped neck ended in a beak-like point. Threading over its marble-white armored plates were veins of gold branching out into thorns, coming together in the front to hold a white tunic covered in turquoise designs in place over the creature's body. A crimson mask with a white circle in its center, also covered in spiderwebbed gold thorn vines, was strapped over the top of the creature's head. There were holes in its shoulders and knees, no eyes to be seen, and above its head shined a simple halo. The creature moved its head in the direction of the trio, let out another… _sound_, and leapt down to the ground.

As the thing began its advance towards them, Seras gulped and muttered, "Guys… I think we're about to fight an _angel_."

Pip's eye widened, then he closed it to sigh, "I knew I ztopped going to church for a reason." Seras coughed out a dry chuckle, but immediately glared over her sunglasses at the creature and spread her feet in a strong stance. Her hand flew up to her eye, and when the Hellsing seal appeared it burned brighter than ever; it disappeared in a blinding flash, stunning the angel for just long enough as Seras caught the Harkonnen, incendiary rounds, and a Desert Eagle filled with some of the only normal rounds the Hellsing organization had. She threw the pistol to Pip, but the angel recovered quick and charged towards her, spear brandished to eviscerate.

With inhuman speed, Izaya drew Saika from his arm and leapt into the charging angel's path, swinging the katana in a horizontal slice with a cry of, "_Firaga_!" Following the path of his blade, a wave of fire sped outwards from the air and hit the angel with enough force to knock it back several feet; the fire burnt through its tunic, the heat scorching its armored plates and drawing a grating cry from its hidden mouth. Pip opened fire on it, giving Izaya enough time to draw back and Seras enough time to finish loading the Harkonnen. The rounds from the pistol dented its armor, but the angel walked forwards again with unflinching purpose.

As the draculina lined up her shot, Izaya called, "We're gonna have to keep it at a distance! Saika may be sharp, but she's not a powerful enough demon to take on an angel!" Seras steadied the Harkonnen and narrowed her eye- the angel was in just the right position. Her finger tightened on the trigger… And out of nowhere a woman with guns strapped to her heels swooped in, kicked the angel's face in, _shot _the angel's head clean off with the aforementioned heel-gun, and landed gracefully with one foot triumphantly planted in the center of the angel's chest.

Seras let the Harkonnen droop down as she and her comrades gaped at the woman in front of them; first and foremost, she was _tall_, standing at just barely under six feet not counting the beehive hairdo her jet-black hair had been pulled into. Second, she was _gorgeous_, with of course well-developed breasts and behind, but really the main attraction were her long, shapely legs. Her face was long and noble, her eyes a warm grey behind a pair of rectangular spectacles. Said glasses had a design on them close to the lenses resembling butterfly wings; the glasses were merely imitating the pair you could see on her shadow.

Her hair seemed to melt down into a skintight suit with a rose design on the abdomen that covered all but a hole for some cleavage and her back. Alongside that she wore long white gloves, black high heels with a pair of red, large caliber handguns attached to them (it would be careless not to note the identical pair the woman also held in her hands), three small belts on each arm, and gold, cat-shaped earrings. Threaded through her hair- or rather her suit- or rather her hair- (hairsuit?) were three long gold chains with heavy circular emblems at the ends of them and a pair of red ribbons. Last but not least, there was a simple rosemary flower tucked behind her left ear.

But this wasn't what captivated Izaya and Seras; radiating from the statuesque woman was a scent, an aura of magical talent. She absolutely reeked of black magic, and frequently used black magic at that. But the scent was… off; it wasn't as personal as the aura from a regular wizard, nor did it have the stench of death that came with a necromancer. She smelled of fire and brimstone, of cracked, drying blood and deep black shadow. She smelled of the abyssal pits of Hell. While Pip was trying to keep his nose from bleeding, the woman finally noticed the trio; in particular, her eyes fell on Seras' canon. She walked up with the strut of a model on the catwalk and leaned over to inspect the canon, letting out a small "hmmm".

She then looked up and asked in a Received Pronunciation English accent, "What kind of rounds are you using?"

Seras jumped a bit, then stammered, "I-incendiary."

The woman stood up to her full height with a smirk; "Then you're in business, dear." Without another word she spun on her heel and sprinted out of the train station. Seras and Izaya slowly turned to look at each other while Pip's eye was glued to the mysterious woman's ass.

"Do you think she's…?" Izaya trailed off, brown eyes wide.

Seras nodded, looking back to the woman's receding form; "There's nothing else she could be."

The draculina then set her mouth in a determined frown and shouted, "Alright! Follow that witch!"

**September 4th, Israel**

Good News: Whatever was trying to get Erin out of Jerusalem had thrown their tactics of warping her perception out the window.

Bad News: It was now resorting to knocking over any street lamps in her path and trying to crush her with cars while she was trying to chase down a desperate (and _fast_) vampire down a busy street in the Old City's Jewish Quarter.

Erin slid beneath a falling street light as quickly as her Unstet speed could take her only to jump (with a boost from Jan) over a car spinning her way. She hit the ground running, growling low in her chest. She kept her eyes trained on the vampire as she hurtled forward, her labored breaths loud enough over the sounds of civilian panic to sound like gale-force winds. The half-breed vampiress was vaguely aware of a sickening crunching sound behind her as Kya stopped the twirling car with her bare hands. Erin heard the cement start to crack before she saw it and swerved around to avoid a section of the sidewalk upend itself. The demon leapt onto the uprooted pavement and used it to jump to Erin's side.

"She's fast!" Kya shouted, grabbing a falling lamppost and tossing it casually behind her.

"Won't be for much longer at this pace!" Erin snapped back, "We've gotta catch her _now_ or we'll have another corpse to interrogate!" Ariella swerved around the path of destruction, just a few yards behind. Despite her stamina, it was physically impossible for Ariella to keep perfect pace with the three beings ahead of her.

Regardless, she dodged obstacles and shouted to her subordinates, "Push her into the alleyways! We'll be able to cut her off there!"

Jan rolled his eyes; "Yeah, that worked out _so _well for us last time we found one of these assholes." Kya called her affirmative back to Ariella before turning her eyes and ears ahead. The pavement began to splinter just a yard ahead of Erin, and Kya swerved in just in time for the asphalt to wrench up into a ramp. She sprinted up it and vaulted through the air. The demon landed perfectly on her feet in front of the false vampire. The young woman's garishly red eyes widened in terror as Kya twisted around to face her; straight away she tried to backpedal out of Kya's reach, and the demon's shadow shot out to meet her. The shade grabbed tightly to the girl's ankles and kept their grip no matter how much she screamed, squirmed, or convulsed.

Erin grinned and pulled her guns out of their holster as she skid to a stop behind the false vampire; "Alright, you're gonna come with us nice and quiet now, alright?" The only move the girl made was coughing up a bit of blood.

With as much warning as thunder on a clear day, oppressively loud church bells rang out as light flooded down from the sky. It hit Erin's skin, light refracting off of her and turning her flesh into a blinding floodlight. It hit Kya, making both the woman and her shadow let out blood curdling shrieks; Kya fell to her knees as tongues of purple flame engulfed her skin, and her shadow retreated beneath her for safety from the light. It hit Jan's arm and sent pain flaring all the way up the limb until he pulled it out of the light with a loud expletive. It hit the false vampire and gave her a minor headache, along with freedom from Kya's shadow. She went racing into a nearby alleyway, tripping and spitting up blood. As the light faded, a being could be seen coming down from its source-

Ariella didn't have time to sit and gawk, instead roaring, "Oh come the _fuck ON! _Sorrel, Kya! Stay and fight the thing! It's only after Sorrel, if she stays put, it'll stay put! Valentine, come on! We're _not _letting her get away!" The staff sergeant didn't give them time to agree, running down the alley after the girl. Jan looked to Erin (shading his eyes), and when she wagged her head towards the alleyway he shot off after the Israeli soldier.

The being hit the ground with a loud _crash_, the light going out; Erin's skin went back to barely glittering from the city lights, and the tongues of flame went out on Kya's skin, leaving the woman unscathed but breathing heavy. Erin sprinted over to Kya's side, but before she could ask what was going on, the creature let out a blaring… _noise_. The best Erin could do to define it was a garbled birdcall mixed with someone speaking gibberish. Despite not needing to drink, Erin's throat suddenly felt _incredibly _dry.

Erin paused, swallowed, then asked in a low voice, "Kya, I don't want to look just yet… What _is _that?"

Kya barely lifted her head to look at Erin. Between heaving breaths, she replied, "_That_, is an angel."

Muddy red eyes went wide, and the vampiress turned to face the angel. It stared back at her with an eyeless, masked face, and pointed its spear at her in wordless challenge. Erin pointedly did not scream, but she did let out a high-pitched whine that only dogs could hear.

As Kya used Erin as a crutch to get up, the half-breed whispered, "This kind of shit is why I stopped going to church." Kya took a few deep breaths, glanced at the angel, then grinned at Erin. The younger girl's eyebrows went up; this grin wasn't a polite, measured thing meant to take the edge off of being around a flesh and blood demon. This grin was rough at the edges, wild… it was real, and it made Erin just a little less afraid. This grin was crazy, and she could fight alongside crazy.

"Thank _God_, it's just an Affinity," the silver-haired woman announced, standing up straight, "It's your lucky day. Your bullets may be useless against this thing, but I sure won't be."

Ever an eloquent speaker, Erin cocked her head to the side and proclaimed, "Wha?"

"This thing's just a mook, a foot soldier for the forces of Heaven," Kya continued, "Basically, it's weak. And I'm not." In a blur of motion Kya tore towards the Affinity, trench knives on her hands and blazing with purple flames. The angel brandished its spear and blocked the oncoming blade with the shaft of its spear, belting out another noise. Erin's jaw dropped on the floor when Kya locked "eyes" with the thing and a similar _sound _came out of her mouth. She would've gaped for longer, but this was the heat of battle. Erin snapped back into action and leapt over Kya to plow her foot straight into the Affinity's "face". The marble cracked when her foot made contact; when she flipped out of the way for Kya to smash a right hook into its "cheek", the armor shattered. And _then _Erin screamed, because the armor broke to reveal a gaping mouth at the end of the creature's head surrounded by hundreds of needle-like teeth.

The angel retaliated quickly, snapping its head back and chomping down on Kya's hand. It let out a muffled cry as the trench knife cut into its esophagus, but held fast to the demon. Despite her being fist-deep in angel, Kya just showed more teeth. Violet fire erupted from her arm, searing the angel's throat and drawing an ear-splitting howl from deep inside the Affinity. Kya screamed back in its face as she ripped her arm out of its throat. Her shadow screamed across the ground to clamp down on the angel's feet, then threw the angel up and over Kya's head with one mighty swing. It tumbled through the air towards Erin, bringing the vampiress' head back into the game.

"Hit it out of the park, Sorrel!" Kya crowed. Erin gritted her teeth and pulled back her fist. When the Affinity was in range, Erin roared out loud and slammed her fist into its back. The forceful blow sent the creature crashing into the cement across the boulevard, the ground cracking beneath it on impact. To add insult to injury, Kya's shadow snatched the angel's spear and drove it into the creature's chest. And not a moment too soon; the moment spear connected with angel, both objects began to glow with a much gentler light than before. More and more of the angel was engulfed in the soft splendor of Heaven, and when the entire creature was covered, the light and body suddenly shrunk down to a sphere the size of a golf ball. It rested for a moment, then quietly imploded into nothingness.

Erin and Kya exchanged smiles, but before they could congratulate each other on a job well done, stomping footsteps drew their eyes to the alley across the street. Their shoulders sank at the sight. Ariella stalked out into the street, her shoulders stiff and face consumed by a scowl. Her boots were covered in blood. Just behind her, Jan was "walking" (he was going through the motions of walking, but his feet weren't really connecting with the ground) along with the false vampire's corpse over his shoulder. The corpse reeked of dead human.

Ariella stopped between Kya and Erin, looked down at where the angel had just been, then looked up and declared, "This _can't _happen again. We can _not _have another night like this. We need to know why the city seems to want Erin of all people dead."

Jan and Erin's eyes went wide, and as Erin tried to formulate a response, Kya murmured, "Yes, we do. This must be serious if it's sending out angels to kill her this early."

The half-breed finally cut in; "Wait, what?! What do you _mean _the _city _wants me _dead_?!"

Ariella turned to her, adjusting her sunglasses as she explained, "Since Jerusalem is a holy city, God gave it a basic level of sentience. It knows when something that God doesn't approve of or thinks is harmful is in its borders, and attempts to eliminate it by warping probability and reality inside city limits. When all else fails, it can produce an angel to kill the offending entity."

Erin stood silent for a while before pulling her lips up in a wry smile and quipped, "Well. I kind of had a feeling God had it out for me, but I didn't know he was gonna be this literal." Kya coughed awkwardly while Jan almost put a hand on Erin's shoulder before thinking better of it and looking away.

Ariella scowled ahead at the city lights; "I don't _care_ what God thinks of you, I need your help. Come on, we're going. And we're getting to the bottom of this."

_Okay, so I didn't get into it in this chapter, and spoilers we're never touching Vigrid again after next chapter, so I'll explain this now. Basically the events of Bayonetta took place at the exact same time as the attack on London by Millennium. Also, the place has been stripped of its isolationism and theocracy-esque style of… being by the new government that replaced the hold Father Balder and his lackeys/associates/etc. had on the city. That's why there's now a railway _out _of Vigrid along with one into it and entry visas are no longer a thing_


	5. Losing My Religion

**Fandom:** Hellsing, Twilight, Durarara!, Bayonetta, and oh so much more… Basically, I don't know the meaning of the term "overly convoluted".

**Title:** Hostilities _or_ Alliances 2: Electric Boogaloo

**Rating:** T

**Pairing(s):** More than I can think to list

**Genre:** Adventure, Drama, Romance, Humor

**Warning(s):** Blood, violence, gore, sexual themes, language, OOC, OC's

**Dedicated:** Master of the Boot, my mentor in all things fanfiction who has helped me become the writer I am now.

**Summary:** It's been two years, nearly three- London is only partially rebuilt, the vampire queen She is on the loose, dens of false vampires have been popping up around the world, Germany is experiencing a werewolf epidemic, Seras and Pip are traveling the world in search of a necromancer/witch/Unseelie fae, Rip Van Winkle is sporting a fedora, and Alucard watches My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. We're in for quite a ride.

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing except for the plot and all OCs.

**Author Notes:** This chapter's gonna be fun. Because it involves me shattering a character's dreams UwU Which I _actually _imagined doing much later, which is why I drag it out so much here :D Also, some things might be really different when it comes to how I portray some characters and how they speak, due to my having seen OVAs five through eight in English :U Basically, no more "mignonette" (because I'm pretty sure that's not even a real word) and there will be comments on Yumie's Welsh accent. To anyone who hasn't heard Yumie dubbed, yes she does have a Welsh accent. I swear to God that is true. Also, I formally apologize for my poor description of the angels from Bayonetta. Expect more horrible descriptions to come as more elaborately designed angels appear.

**Chapter V - Losing My Religion**

**September 5th, Israel**

As Kya wrenched open the heavy, rusted iron trap door with her bare hands, Erin surmised that there must be some rule among shadowy semi-religious monster hunting organizations that you didn't count unless you had a creepy basement deep underground. Honestly, Erin wasn't sure how any of what they were doing was getting them any closer to finding out why God wanted her dead- after the incident the previous night, they'd just gone back to headquarters (encountering even more accidents along the way) and waited for morning while an autopsy was performed on the false vampire. The sun had just risen when Ariella dragged them all to an innocuous storage room, where they stood now as Kya stepped aside for Ariella to make her way down ahead of all them.

"I guess you were being literal when you said we'd get to the bottom of this?" the vampiress joked as Ariella walked past her, scratching an imaginary itch on the back of her neck. Jan was the only one who even cracked a smile at the quip; the Israelis were silent, exchanging serious gazes at the mouth of the trap door. They nodded to each other before Ariella looked over her shoulder and waved for them to follow her down the stairs. With many gulps of apprehension, the Hellsing operatives apprehensively followed her down. Kya took up the rear, closing the trap door behind them with a resounding _clang_. The group was drowned in darkness.

Jan and Erin paused for a second, jarred by the sudden change in lighting, but Ariella- the only person out of the four without natural night vision- steadily made her way down the stairs without even the slightest flinch. The ghost and the half-breed exchanged looks, then followed the soldier down the stairs. They descended in silence for a little over five minutes, deeper and deeper until they found themselves in a room about the size of a modestly priced apartment. The room… was completely empty. There were no objects actually _in _the room, just four walls, a ceiling and a floor. However, in the center of the ceiling was a circle six feet in diameter- as far as Erin could tell, it looked like a skylight, but it was closed by two interlocking doors. On the back wall was a simple light switch.

Despite the pitch black of the basement, Ariella crossed the room and flipped the switch with perfect practiced precision. The doors on the skylight opened and retracted to let a beam of bright white light shine into the room. The light fell and remained in the circle outlined by the skylight, almost as if it was coming from a spotlight. Erin cocked her head to the side- it didn't look like natural light, but it couldn't be coming from an electric light. And even stranger, the minute the light hit the floor Erin could hear… humming? No, it was too gentle, too sweet to be humming. She walked out to investigate, but when she was five feet from the light Kya planted her hand on Erin's chest, stopping her in her tracks.

Erin looked to the demon, and Kya responded, "This is holy light, straight from the source. It won't be like yesterday- like it or not you're still an unholy creature, and this will _kill_ you. Same goes for you, Mister Valentine." Erin's eyes widened, but Jan just quirked an eyebrow at being called "Mister Valentine" for the first time in his life; as they did, Ariella walked around to stand on the other side of the light, taking her sunglasses off and putting them in her pocket.

She regarded the beam with a brooding look, then turned her eyes to Kya; "You know what to ask?" The demon nodded, her expression similarly dour. Erin cocked her head to the side, furrowing her eyebrows. She was about to voice her confusion when Ariella strode into the light.

The soldier stopped dead in the center of the circle, standing up ramrod straight as her arms fell limply to her sides. Ariella's jaw fell open, but no sound came out. Her eyes rolled back into her head, leaving them pure white. She threw her head back, staring up into the blinding light while Erin and Jan stared on, both of them bug-eyed. The humming in the room grew just the slightest bit louder, just loud enough for Erin to tell what it was. It was a choir of innumerable voices, singing a sweet, reverent, wordless tune. In several seconds, the song tapered off back into a hum, Ariella's shoulders relaxed, and she brought her head back down. Her mouth was closed, but her eyes were still pure white.

Her voice came out vacant and lilting; "Ah, the demon receives Me. I trust this means that Ariella has questions that she cannot ask while channeling Me, correct?"

Kya responded with a deep bow of her head; "With all due respect, while that is indeed true Lord, I share her curiosity."

"What… What's… Huh?" Erin mustered, putting a hand to her head as she struggled to comprehend the situation.

Jan was able to put his thoughts together in a more eloquent fashion; "What the flying fuck is happening here?"

Kya looked to Ariella, then looked back to the Hellsing operatives and explained, "There are a few people in the world of man who were born closer to Heaven than others. God can speak to these people, God can see through these people should He so choose, and under the correct circumstances, He can speak through these people. Ariella is one of these few souls, these Conduits for the Word of God. In years past she would've been a prophet. Now, she's our resource should we need to consult the Lord directly."

Erin's shoulders sank, and if she wasn't already ivory white she would've paled; "So… we're talking to God."

Ariella's head limply nodded, and her voice spilled out again; "Yes. Now, Kherev only speaks to Me when My Word is of dire importance."

The soldier's head lolled to the side, but somehow the whiles of Ariella's eyes seemed intensely focused on the three unholy creatures; "What do you wish to know?"

**September 4th, Vigrid**

Seras didn't wait for Pip and Izaya, leaping up into the broken window. She just barely caught the woman's dark silhouette turning down a street corner. Before she could leap out to follow her, an Affinity flew up to hover just a yard from her, spear brandished. Seras frowned, but didn't waste a second- the draculina whipped the Harkonnen onto her shoulder and fired the cannon without a moment's delay. The incendiary round plowed into the angel's face, erupting into flames and blowing the angel's head clean off. The creature went flying backwards, bounced off a rooftop and landed on the ground. Seras leapt from the window and landed on her feet, one foot smashing straight through the armor and flesh of the angel to hit the pavement. Thankfully for her, she didn't need to fish her foot out of the gore. The angel just shrunk into a ball of light and disappeared.

Seras squinted at the sight, but looked over her shoulder just in time for Pip and Izaya to catch up, Pip shouting, "Way to wait for uz, cherie! Good teamwork!"

The darculina rolled her eyes with a smile wide enough to show off her fangs; "Oh please, you caught up just fine! Now come on, she went this way!" Once again, she didn't wait, taking off down the street. This time, though, the men were able to keep up and run just a few paces behind her.

"What about these angels?" Izaya wondered, resting Saika on his shoulder as he jogged along the cobblestone streets; "I know Hellsing is a Christian organization, but these things are directly attacking us, so…"

Seras' eyes flicked to the glowing corpse of a larger angel as they ran past; "Well, the witch seems to be cleaning this situation up well enough…"

Pip gritted his teeth; "I'm not juzt going to ignore zese zings."

"I know, Pip," Seras replied, "Neither am I. But that woman seemed to have a clear idea of where she was going _and _she seems to know her stuff when it comes to fighting these things. If we follow her then we'll have a good chance of finding her _and _taking out angels. Sound good to everyone?"

The mercenary's grit teeth turned to a grin; "Let'z juzt 'ope she zaved zome for uz."

The narrow street opened out into a wide open plaza. Our intrepid heroes _would _take a moment to take in the details of their surroundings, but sadly they couldn't due to the slight inconvenience of them stumbling on three Affinities touching down on Vigrid's streets. Seras readied her shot with unparalleled speed. She pulled the trigger on the Harkonnen and blew the center Affinity's head clean off its shoulders- the angel fell to the ground on its side, twitching once before imploding into light. Before she could smirk in triumph, the sound of a trumpet rang out- Seras turned just in time to see one of the Affinities launch a ball of gold and pink energy her way from the trumpet it held in its claws. With swift feet and a drop of the Harkonnen the draculina swerved away from it, just barely out of range of the celestial energy ball. The shot's holy aura did manage to singe the tips of her hair.

Seras worked fast. A hand flew up to her shadow eye and pulled out into the air. The Hellsing seal appeared, small and spinning wildly as Seras yanked a long rope of shadow from it. She cracked the shadow whip out and grabbed the angel's trumpet. The Affinity let out a cry as Seras yanked the instrument from its hands, flinging it behind her on the backswing. The rope burst apart and the shadow matter rushed to cover the draculina's hands. Seras clenched her hands into fists just in time for the shadows to properly form gloves. She charged forward. She balled her left hand into a fist and pulled it back for the punch, but the Affinity leapt to the right just as she was about to swing. She didn't swing. Seras grabbed the angel's head with her right hand and clenched down, cracking the marble armor.

It was only a second before she could feel the palms of her shadow glove melting away on contact with the blessed armor. She couldn't waste any time. Seras grit her teeth, grabbed the struggling angel's head with her other hand, smashed her boot into its stomach and pulled back with all her might. Flesh tore and bone cracked. She ripped the angel's head from its shoulders and threw it across the plaza as the last remnant of shadow glove melted away. The young vampire doubled back to retrieve the Harkonnen, not waiting to see the angel implode into light.

She spun on her toes to the last Affinity- just in time to see Pip kick it in the chest, sending it crashing onto its back. The mercenary grabbed the black flail out of the creature's hands and smashed the ball spike-first into its face. The thing didn't even twitch when the spike gouged through it, going limp in seconds. Pip looked up with a grin and Seras nodded once before sniffing the air. The hellish scent was fading, but it was definitely there, leading into a short tunnel to the south. Seras dashed through the tunnel with the humans a few paces behind her, stopping only for a moment to sniff the air again before hanging right and following a pair of trolley rails down. She took another left into another open plaza. Her entourage was met with more angels, but these were a different breed.

Idling in the sky above the Hellsing trio were alabaster heads. Heads with gilded wings on their sides and halos above them. There were eight heads in total- seven were the heads of cherubic children with vacant, glowing blue eyes, all circling around the eighth head. The eighth head was that of a bearded man with a golden laurel wreath atop its head- the head looked almost as if it'd been plucked straight off an ancient sculpture of a Greek god. Seras took the briefest of moments to stare in utter confusion. She hastily pulled herself together and hoisted the Harkonnen to her shoulder. Before she could fire, however, the adult head turned to a corner of the plaza and folded back its alabaster layer; as more celestial energy began to gather in front of its face, Seras' head whipped around to see what it was aiming for. She took in a sharp breath- the head had its sights set on a young woman cowering against the side of a building.

She banished the Harkonnen and shot across the plaza. Seras grabbed the woman and leapt out of the way- the ball of energy crashed into the wall where the young lady's head had been seconds before. The vampire darted around to the nearest street out of the plaza and set the civilian down on her feet. She bit her lip. The young woman was still staring ahead with wide eyes, shivers running through her uncontrollably.

Seras grabbed the young lady's shoulders and shook her; "Hey! I know you're scared, but you have to run! It's not safe here!" The woman blinked rapidly, regaining her wits. Seras knew it was only a matter of seconds before her eyes fell on the vampire's shadow eye or fangs.

The draculina pointed down the street; "Go!" The woman's eyes widened again, but she nodded and took off from Seras' hands with all the speed her adrenaline could give her. Seras turned around again with a hand already up to her eye and the Harkonnen already in mind-

Izaya raised Saika to the sky and shouted, "_Thundaga_!" A cascade of lightning bolts struck the heads. They let out screams as garbled and grating as the noises of the Affinities as the electricity broke right through their armor and scorched them all the way through. They all fell to the ground with resonant _thud_s, smoke rising from their charred remains. Seras couldn't help a little fanged grin.

The Umbra witch's scent was still in the air; Seras raced along its path, going through an archway and out into a courtyard on a cliff. The only thing keeping people safe from falling down the cliff and into the ocean was a chest-high wall. She swerved to the right and down a stairway, taking a sharp left at the bottom and crossing a brand new stone bridge. She stopped at the other side and looked over her shoulder. Izaya and Pip were just on the other side of the bridge. She breathed a sigh of relief- it wasn't hard to forget her human companions couldn't keep up with her when she went running after a target. She continued to run along the small street. Seras skid to a stop once more when the witch's scent hit her. It was fresh here… and it didn't help that she could hear gunshots from the church beside her.

When Pip and Izaya caught up, Seras turned to face the church; "She's in here."

Izaya raised an eyebrow, leaning Saika on his shoulder; "Maybe we should've been listening for gunfire the whole time instead of following our noses." Seras pursed her lips, but bit her tongue. The draculina summoned the Harkonnen once more, rushed forward and kicked down the door the to the church.

There were no pews or podiums in this church. Just columns, large windows, a six foot tall Umbra witch, and two gigantic angels. Everyone's eyes shot open wide at the sight of the beasts standing on either side of the witch. They had the basic body structures and spears of Affinities, but were twice as large. Their spears scraped the ceiling, as did the tops of their wings. Their tunics and masks were a deep blue, as were the pieces of armor on their shoulders.

The witch was fighting them _alone_.

And if the angel on the left's armor breaking just as they came in was any indication, she was _winning_.

The statuesque woman backpedaled with grace out of the left angel's spear swinging range and right up against a pillar. She was by no means cornered. The witch hopped up, braced her feet against the pillar and used it as a springboard, leaping towards the creature. She landed heel-first on the angel's head and took him crashing down with her. The ground shattered beneath the angel, shaking the church to its foundation. Its head crumpled inwards around the witch's foot, blood splattering all over her shoe. She didn't have time to even adjust her glasses before the remaining angel swung his spear down at her. She whipped around towards her opponent just in time to notice the blade. The witch artfully sidestepped the spear, the blade coming to rest in the crater his comrade had made.

The second her dodge succeeded, she became a blur of black and red. Not even Seras could track her. A hail of bullets flew from all directions, every single one hitting their mark and shattering the angel's marble armor. It let out a garbled screech of anger and pain before swinging its spear wildly around. The witch mwas still moving too fast, it couldn't even hope to hit her. The witch blazed through the air and skid to a halt right next to Seras.

She turned with a smirk that was all casual confidence; "So, Little Bat, do you want the kill?"

Seras blinked a few times before shaking her head; "Oh, uh, no. I'm fine." The Umbra witch cocked an eyebrow, but shrugged all the same and leapt back into the fray. She unleashed a volley of punches and kicks, knocking the holy beast against the back wall of the church. She leapt back a foot or two, planted herself firmly on the ground and unleashed a mighty punch forward into the air. Almost all of the hair making up her suit disappeared as she threw the punch- because it all went up into the air to form a giant fist above her. The giant hand of hair smashed into the angel and through the window. The angel's head disintegrated into nothing but fleshy pieces on the giant hand's knuckles, while the force of the blow sent the body tumbling into the sea.

The arm disappeared into a purple seal of demonic script (Seras shuddered- it looked almost like the Hellsing seal did when she used her shadow eye) and the hair reformed as the witch's catsuit. The witch spared herself a little wave to the window before she frowned and put her hands on her hips.

"Well, that should be all of them," she remarked to the air. "Now to solve the matter of why these bloody things are here in the first place."

The deep voice of a man rang out through the church; "What a disappointment. I'd hope these things could be a more elite fighting force, but if one Umbra witch and three rag-tag soldiers could take them all out…" Everyone wildly looked around for the source, but they didn't have to look long. A large snake slithered out from behind one of the pillars. The thing was green with black spots on its back, and as far as anyone looking could tell it was about ten feet long. It slid purposefully along the ground, slaloming between outstretched legs and over the shoes of one Pip Bernadotte, nearly making the man let out the unmanly squeak in his throat.

The baritone resonated from the snake as it continued, "Well, any canon fodder is good canon fodder."

The witch raised an eyebrow, glaring down at the snake; "I'd _love _for you to be the type that monologues, dear. Please, tell me in great detail why I'm still running around killing rogue angels when I destroyed their false God two years ago?"

The snake just slithered between her legs in a figure eight; "You're out of luck, darling. You've got work to do." The witch frowned and fired a round right next to the snake's tail. That sent it slithering as fast as it could go across the floor and out the window. Seras ran to the window and looked over the side- the snake was nowhere to be seen.

The Umbra witch shook her head and scowled at the ground; "At this rate, Madama Butterfly won't even let me sleep. I suppose I'll have to get to the bottom of this, won't I?" She looked up to see Seras looking right back at her.

The taller woman put a hand on her hip, the cocky smirk coming back full force; "Oh right, you all are still here, aren't you?"

Seras nodded; "We are. And, if I'm not mistaken, you're an Umbra witch."

The witch laughed, the sound itself more seductive than any one woman could hope to be; "You've a sharp eye, Little Bat. I'm one of two in this big, crazy world. You can call me Bayonetta." Seras quirked an eyebrow, looking the woman up and down. Odd, she didn't look like she even owned any bayonets… She shook her head before she could imagine certain Catholic priests in that outfit.

The young vampire started making her way closer; "Well, that's good. My name is Seras Victoria. It just so happens that we're in need of your he-" She bumped right into the taller woman's hand as she held it out in the universal gesture of "stop".

"I'm going to have to stop you right there, Little Bat," Bayonetta drawled, lazily examining her nails as she spoke. "This is terribly cliche, but I work alone. I'm not so good at the whole 'teamwork' thing, anyways. You're better off just going your merry way, dear." Seras opened her mouth to protest, but she hesitated for a moment to think.

She frowned, then said, "I don't suppose you're the fickle type, are you?"

"Nope," the witch replied, "Now fly on home, Little Bat. Your sire must be worried sick about you." Seras sighed from deep in her lungs. Another failure. Well, at least they had a necromancer for their troubles, so this wasn't _so _bad. Seras turned to leave, and Bayonetta turned her eyes from her nails to examine the draculina. Seras paused, watching the witch's eyes. She seemed to be looking her over in detail for the first time. Her eyes stopped on the young vampire's chest. After a second, her eyes widened and her eyebrows disappeared up behind her bangs.

Seras scowled up at the witch; "_Yes_, they are real-"

Bayonetta waved that comment off as she cut in, "Oh no no no, I know that. I'm more interested in that coat of arms. Are you _actually _from Hellsing? Honestly?"

Seras blinked once, then slowly answered, "Yes, I am."

Bayonetta clapped her hands and grinned wide, bright and real as she chirped, "Why didn't you say so in the _first _place, darling? Of _course _I'll come along, it's been ages since I've seen Alucard!"

The young draculina frowned and replied, "Well, honestly I thought that'd scare you off- Wait, you know Master?"

The witch grinned even wider; "Oh, so you're _Alucard's _little bat! I knew he'd take my advice one day and get himself some company." The witch put her arm around Seras' shoulders and pulled her tight to her side as she strode towards the door. It was at this point that Seras noticed she was exactly boob-level with the witch.

"You simply _have _to tell me how the old man's doing," Bayonetta continued.

Seras tried to pull her face away from the side of the witch's bosom; "Well, I guess he's _healthy_, but he's been sort of angry these days."

The witch shook her head with another smooth chuckle; "Probably hasn't been getting his daily dose of violence." They made it back to the doorway and the waiting men. Izaya was in the middle of a whispered conversation with Saika, but Pip… Pip was just staring at the back window and shivering.

"Are you alright?" Seras asked, cocking her head to the side _away _from Bayonetta's breasts.

Pip started at the sound of Seras' voice, then shook his head to clear out the clutter; "I zought I saw- Never mind. I'm fine, I juzt don't like znakes…"

Izaya slid up and patted Pip on the cheek; "Don't worry, soldier. The big strong Umbra witch is on our side now, she'll protect you from the _scary _snakes."

Pip ground his teeth; "Get zat 'and off me before I blow a 'ole in it." Izaya swiftly stepped away; as he did, Bayonetta sniffed the air.

She wrinkled her nose; "What smells dead?"

Seras shrugged and replied, "Well, we do have a necromancer with us-"

Bayonetta waved her off again; "No no no, this is different… Was someone here dead recently?"

The vampiress thought for a minute, then snapped her fingers; "Oh yes! Pip nearly became a ghoul two years ago! You might be smelling that." Bayonetta leaned down close to Pip's face and sniffed again; despite all his sexual experience with ladies of all different kinds, Pip turned a deep puce and suddenly felt that his pants were _far _too tight today. Traveling with this woman was going to be _very _difficult.

Bayonetta stood back up to her full height with a curt nod; "He _does _smell like a recent exorcism. Now," as she walked out of the church, the witch turned her attention back down to Seras, "You have a necromancer, and you were in need of an Umbra witch. What _else _is the young mistress collecting?"

"Well, we have this ghost who we need to separate from the one who brought him back," Seras replied, finally ducking out from under Bayonetta's arm. "So we're looking for creatures who could do that, and if not that then help us fight. We've kind of got a war on our hands…" Bayonetta nodded as the men fell into step on either side of the women.

"Integra told uz we should find a necromancer, an Umbra witch, or a fae," Pip spoke up. "Az you can zee, we're two for two."

Bayonetta smirked and adjusted her glasses with the barrel of her gun; "I know a few people in Dublin who could help us go three for three."

**September 5th, Israel**

Kya took a deep breath, then declared, "My Lord, we brought these two here to help us through a trying time for Israel. Vampires are running rampant through our city streets and we need all the help we can get. But Jerusalem takes incredible offense to Erin- the vampire- being here. It has been trying violently to get rid of her, and it thinks her so dangerous that it summoned forth an angel to kill her. Lord, we must know why You consider her such a threat. No other vampires in the city have been pursued with this much hostility, and Erin is an ally. Jerusalem's persecution of her is making it impossible for us to defend the city, Lord. Please, let us reason with You."

Ariella's eyebrows knitted together; "I do not recall sending forth an angel to defend Jerusalem."

Kya's eyes widened; "What? Then who did?"

Ariella's head tilted the other way; "The angel was not one of Mine. If it was not Fallen, then it must be a part of the Hierarchy of Laguna."

The demon looked away, muttering, "I didn't know they'd survived Jubileus' destruction…"

Erin frowned at Kya, then walked forward and proclaimed, "Excuse me, Lord, but let's not change the subject. Why is Jerusalem trying so hard to kill me?"

Ariella's blank white eyes lay on Erin's red ones for a moment before her voice hesitantly replied, "You are different."

Erin quirked an eyebrow, but nevertheless pressed, "I know I'm a half-breed and I'm fucking a ghost, but I don't see what other than that makes me so different."

The Lord hesitated once more, then tilted Ariella's head down; "I cannot tell you."

Erin stood up straight, both eyebrows up, before she put her hands on her hips and glared at the soldier; "Why? Why _not_?"

Ariella's head looked away; "Because it would cause you undue sadness, Erin Sorrel."

Erin shook her head, looking at the floor as she hissed out a dry, humorless laugh; "Oh _please_. I think we both know by now that you hate me. Don't bother sparing my feelings. I mean, you did just try to _kill _me last night, let's not go mixing signals here."

Ariella's head went back up to look at Erin directly, an expression of offense and genuine hurt painted on her face; "Erin Sorrel, I don't hate you."

Her grin disappeared as she shouted, "Bullshit!"

"Hey, yo, Erin!" Jan called, getting Erin to look over her shoulder at him; "You know how I can't fucking stand being the voice of reason, but… Y'think maybe if _God_, the head motherfucker in charge of _everything_, who also _knows _everything, thinks you're not ready to learn something… maybe you actually aren't ready?"

Erin stared back at her boyfriend for a moment or two, then turned away from the others, a hand to her chin and her eyebrows knit together in thought. She paced the floor in a wide circle (carefully avoiding the holy light) without saying a word. She stopped where she'd started, paused for a moment, then took her hand away and looked back over to Jan.

"Whether I'm personally ready or not," she replied, "We need to know all the facts before we can start negotiating with him. No matter how 'milk and honey, turn the other cheek' this guy may sound right now… Well, at least one of us in here has read the old testament, right? This guy is ruthless, and we need to know all we can before we can make a deal with him that works out well for everyone."

Ariella's head lolled to the left; "I'm sorry you feel that way about Me-"

Erin's head whipped over her shoulder, eyes burning; "Shut up! I wasn't talking to you!" Every other set of eyes in the room widened as Erin turned to look back at Jan.

She smiled again, the expression small and weak; "And really… My life already sucks. It only makes sense it should get worse." Kya looked away, shielding her face behind a gossamer curtain of silver hair.

Jan's shoulders sunk; "Guess I can't stop you then, huh?"

Erin shook her head, then turned back to Ariella with a frown; "Alright, you heard all that. Now tell me."

Ariella's blank white eyes looked at her for a long time; "If you are sure… You are not one of My creations."

Erin's shoulders sank. Her eyes went wide. Her throat was a desert; "… What?"

Ariella's eyes closed; "You are a homunculus. You are a creature crafted from filth and occult magic by the Queen of Blood. The one Millennium named She. You were an experiment, designed to test the capabilities and utilities of a half-human, half-werewolf individual. You were grown alongside another, the girl you would come to know as Kutsavi. She was a second try at creating a purely human homunculus. The man you would know as your father felt pity for you and the life She would have given you, so he took you both away and hid you far from where She had created you. She sent an Unstet assassin many years later to recover her stolen property."

Erin tried to swallow; "It's my fault then… that my parents are dead…"

Jan reached out to her; "That's just bullshit of _course _it's not-"

Ariella's body snapped up straight as her voice boomed, "Silence, Shade! You do not belong on this world either, do not entreat Me to raise My sword against you!" Jan's eyes went wide before he slit them and balled his hand into a fist with a feral growl. Kya shrunk further away from the action.

The soldier's head turned to Erin once more; "The assassin killed your family and the family of your two friends in an attempt to recover her stolen goods. The blood of those families is on her blade, but you are responsible as well. You are her heretical creation, and as such you bear the sins of your creator on your back." Erin shrunk in on herself, hiding her face with her hair as she stared at the floor.

Erin was shaking now as Ariella's hand clenched into a fist; "She directly defied My authority, My dominion over this Earth. She created life in an unnatural way, from things I never authorized to be used to make life. She played God in the name of her own twisted view of science. And this is not the first time She has tried to fill this Earth with disgusting creatures made outside of My systems, My rules, My Word of Law. You, Erin Sorrel, are the last living product of her latest defiance. You are unnatural, you are a creature of waste and blood. You are not meant to walk this Earth. You are simply _Wrong_. Nothing that I did not create has credence to call this place its home."

Jan lurched forwards and shouted, "That's _bullshit_! If you've got beef with She then take it up with her! Erin's got nothing to do with this, asshole, so leave her the fuck alone-"

Ariella's face turned to the ghost, rage etched onto its features, and when she shouted it rocked the very room; "SILENCE! Do not think that I speak through the soldier because I am weak in this plane! Defy me once more and I will smite you from the face of this world with all of my power!"

Jan's face contorted in a wrathful glare, and he snapped, "Just you fucking tr-"

"Jan, stop!" Erin cried, just barely picking her head up to look him in the eye. "Please…" The fire in the ghost's eyes went out at the sight of Erin's face. Every feature was contorted in deep, bone-shaking agony. She hadn't shed any tears, but it wasn't for lack of trying. Jan put his arm around her shoulders; she just looked away.

Ariella's head tilted to the right and down, the harsh shadows playing on her face; "You are a sacrilegious, godless creature, Erin Sorrel. You must be destroyed. There is no alternative."

**September 5th, England**

Integra had just started her cup of afternoon tea when she heard the sound of whirling rotor blades in her back yard. She only knew one organization with a leader presumptuous enough to land helicopters in her yard unannounced, but out of force of habit she looked over her shoulder. A black helicopter with the cross emblazoned on the side was coming to smash the grass on her perfectly trimmed lawn, just as she'd expected. It was all she could do to not break the handle of her "Number One Boss" mug.

It had been a gift from Seras. She'd looked so pleased with herself and her "clever" gift choice that Integra didn't have the heart to throw it out.

Ever since they'd officially made a truce and started working together in the war effort against She, Iscariot had been dropping in unannounced every several months so the two organizations could give catch each other up and plan in person. It wasn't as if she didn't expect these meetings and she did recognize their necessity, but Maxwell always had to grate against her English sensibilities. He never informed her ahead of time, he never came up the drive and rang the doorbell like anyone with manners did, and five times out of ten he decided bringing _Anderson _was the right idea, so they had to conduct their meetings while shouting over gunshots and bombastic speeches from the back yard. It was enough to drive a woman mad.

Nevertheless, the knight stood and began to make her way out of the office, calling as she did, "I'm going out to meet them. Don't you _dare _traumatize them before I get out there." A groan echoed from one of the shadows in Integra's office.

Her extensive experience with this exact situation allowed Integra to make her way out to the lawn in record time, closing the back door behind her just as the helicopter was taking to the skies again, leaving Maxwell and his entourage on her nicely cut grass. She examined them as they headed towards her. As always, Maxwell's hair was a completely different length than it was the last time she saw him three months prior; back then, it'd been reaching his lower back. Now it was back at just below shoulder length. It'd be quite the ease on her nerves if he could just pick a hair length and stick with it. It seems this time he'd brought the women under his command with him. There was the regenerator priestess Kallenna (the only one whose name she ever remembered), the Japanese nun with an inexplicable Welsh accent, and the sharpshooter she'd mistaken for a man until she'd heard her speak.

Integra crossed the distance between them and cut off Maxwell's attempt at a polite greeting as she remarked, "You know, it's probably smarter that you landed on my lawn. Had you done the polite, decent thing and come up to the front door, you might've been mauled by a werewolf."

Maxwell's slimy smile headed for home at the word 'werewolf', a speculatively raised eyebrow taking its place; "Increasing security, are we?"

She shrugged, pushing some hair over her shoulder; "I hadn't _planned _on it, but my security is definitely tighter. Captain Günsche has been circling the perimeter in his wolf form since early yesterday. He nearly scared off some returning troops last night."

"Why?" Kallenna wondered, squinting at the trees.

Integra rolled her eyes; "You're asking the wrong person. He doesn't speak to me in anything more than monosyllables. We'd best get inside and off my freshly _crushed_ grass."

Maxwell smirked again as he fell in step with Integra; "It's always the grass."

Integra held the door open for the Iscariot agents as she remarked in perfect deadpan, "I'm holding onto the vain hope that I can annoy you into landing on the helipad one day."

Maxwell stepped inside and immediately changed the subject; "Have you interrogated the prisoner yet?"

Integra shook her head with a sigh; "Officer Van Winkle and I tried questioning him yesterday afternoon. He kept his mouth shut. The boy hasn't said much to the Unstet prisoner either, only his name. We were going to have the Captain try and question him- we're working on the hypothesis that he might want to talk to a fellow werewolf more than he'd like to talk to us- but we haven't been able to catch him since early yesterday. He won't even speak to Van Winkle."

"How long are you going to wait for the dog to stop chasing his tail?" Yumie asked, stretching her arms before lazily folding them behind her head.

"I'm giving him until the end of today," the knight answered, "If he won't cooperate, we'll have to use much more… _unpleasant _tactics to get some information out of the boy."

"You should find some way to tell him that," Kallenna commented, "He wouldn't let me and Heinkell kill the kid when we first found him. If you tell the Captain you might hurt the kid, he might be more cooperative." Integra smiled with a low hum of contemplation- there was a reason she remembered this Iscariot soldier's name. As she did, her shadow stretched out several yards behind her and faded to a deep, inky black. Several dozen red-orange eyes opened on her shadow, sending all of the Iscariot soldiers' hands flying to their weapons on instinct.

With deliberate speed, Alucard rose from Integra's shadow and remarked in his resounding baritone, "What a disappointment that the paladin didn't come along on this visit. I was hoping for some exercise."

The elder vampire grinned over his shoulder at the Catholics, sending shudders through all three of them; "I rarely fight women, but I'd love to see how these three fare aga-"

Integra's smirk widened as she cut in, "Ah, Alucard, just in time." Every part of Alucard from his hair to his grin immediately deflated- he knew _exactly _what Integra was about to say.

"Just before our guests arrived, I sent a small squad out to the West edge of London," Integra continued, "There's a small group of Unstet halflings we've been tracking. They've been hiding in the Underground- surprisingly smart move for creatures as watered down as they are- until recently, where they've made camp in an overturned building. The building is one _you _threw, so you should recognize it. It's too close to the outer ring for our liking. They'll soon become a danger to civilians if we ignore them much longer. The squad should be close to the building at this point. You're to meet them where they've set up, strategize and command them. You are _not _to engage."

Alucard's eyes went wide and he let out a high-pitched whining sound no human could hope to replicate; "But- But-!"

"That's an _order_, soldier," Integra snapped. Alucard threw his head back with a groan before muttering the customary 'as you wish, my master'. He melted into a shadow on the wall and raced down the hall, his grumbling echoing throughout the mansion until he was gone. Kallenna, Yumie and Heinkell didn't even bother hiding their sighs of relief.

Maxwell raised an eyebrow as he remarked, "I don't understand why you have _him _of all creatures on the field as a commander. Wasn't he just your muscle up until now? I thought he needed these bursts of violence to stay even the slightest bit sane. Why are you taking this risk by denying him that?"

"Let's answer that question with a question," Integra responded as she opened the door to her office, "If you had someone with centuries upon centuries of military experience, with a brilliant strategic mind full of knowledge gained from years on the battlefield and stolen from thousands of devoured souls, would you let that go to waste?"

Integra breezed around behind her desk and took a sip of her now lukewarm tea, then continued, "Ever since I made Alucard a field commander, we've been getting things done faster and with a lower mortality rate. With him in command of our basic field missions, I have more time to focus on planning against She and commanding our grander ventures. He has a gift for strategy. He just doesn't make use of it for exactly the reason you'd think."

Maxwell smirked as he pulled up a chair on the other side of Integra's desk; "He thinks it's less _fun_ than charging in guns blazing?"

The knight laughed into her mug; "Exactly."

The archbishop resisted the urge to put his feet on Integra's desk, instead settling for crossing his arms as he noted, "I still think it's going to end up biting you in the long run."

"Being bitten is an occupational hazard in this line of work," she replied before her second sip of tea. It was then that Maxwell finally noticed her mug. Maxwell desperately tried not to laugh.

He failed as he chuckled, "Number One Boss, Integra?"

Her mouth flattened into a thin line. "It was a gift," she muttered through grit teeth.

She sat down across from Maxwell as she changed the subject; "So, I hear you've sent people back into Germany?"

"I've sent a _person_, singular, back into Germany," he corrected. "I was going to wait until you gained any worthwhile information from the prisoner before making another move, but there was a series of werewolf attacks on Italy's Austrian border early yesterday. That, along with reports of the attacks spreading outwards from Germany and moving into nearby countries, has convinced me that we can't afford the luxury of waiting. Anderson is in Germany. I've had him investigate the largest centers of werewolf activity and track the werewolves if he finds any."

"What has he found?" Integra asked, leaning forward and steepling her fingers in front of her face.

Maxwell shook his head with a frown, answering, "Not much, but in his most recent report he mentioned something interesting. With most of the attacks we've been seeing human corpses with large amounts of their flesh and organs missing-"

"Eaten," Integra interjected, eyes narrowing as she looked down at her desk.

Maxwell nodded; "Yes, eaten. But, Anderson has been seeing some breaks in the pattern. Human corpses have been showing up with all the signs of being mauled by wolves- teeth marks, claw marks, large sections of their flesh torn out by the killing blow, _but_ they are still intact. The bits of flesh torn out for the kill have even been found nearby."

Integra furrowed her eyebrows and murmured, "So, what you're saying is, these people weren't killed so they could be eaten."

"Exactly," Maxwell replied. "Anderson also said that the bite marks on these particular victims were much larger than any on the ones who'd been killed for food. When they were placed next to bite marks from earlier killings, none of them matched up."

Integra sighed with a frown. She paused to light a cigar and take a drag. In a few moments, she spoke up again; "As far as we can tell, there's another group of werewolves out there. And they're killing for sport."

"That's what it looks like," Maxwell replied. Integra opened her mouth to speak again, but as she did her phone rang. She didn't even tell Maxwell to wait before picking it up with a "Sir Hellsing speaking." Maxwell heard the muffled sound of a familiar chirping British accent on the other end; the archbishop couldn't hold back a sigh. If it was indeed the draculina, he'd be sitting here for a _while_…

Outside, Hans prowled through the trees on all fours. The air was thick with fog, giving the werewolf even more cover than even the dense forest could provide. His ears were forward, his hackles were raised, and he was turning over every scent in the air. He had not slept since he began his patrol. There was no question- he had to be the first to know if Leon's pack came for him. Hans let out a rough breath as he broke through the trees and walked along Hellsing's front wall; Integra's first reaction to a pack of werewolves rushing towards her estate would no doubt be violence. If he wanted any of them to live, he'd have to catch them first and plead for diplomacy.

His tongue lolled out in a canine grin; it was nice trying to prevent mindless violence after spending half a century causing it.

Hans paused midway down the west section of the wall to sniff the air. For a moment, everything smelled as it had. Then a scent blew towards him on the wind. It was familiar, a scent he'd walked past every day for years. It was the smell of a vampire, but it was different. It was _old_, it reeked of decay. Hans eyes snapped to the forest across the way, sniffing in the direction of the trees. The smell was definitely coming from there… There was a shadow standing among the trees. The shadow of a woman in a white dress.

Hans growled deep in the back of his throat and raced across the grounds. Before he could even get to the treeline, the shadow… disappeared. Not in a spiral of shadow or bandages, she didn't run, she was just… gone. Like she'd never been there to begin with. Hans stared in shock for a moment or two before frantically racing into the forest, sniffing wildly and looking behind every tree. Not only was the shadow gone, but the scent had blown away. She was completely gone…

Had she even been there?

Before he could think too hard about that, another scent came rushing on the wind. And this one actually decided to stay a while. Hans raised his nose into the air to take in more of the scent. It smelled of age, but it didn't smell of borrowed time and living on stolen blood. It smelled of trees and soil, of stones and rain, of a creature not of Light or Shadow, but Nature. But most of all, it smelled of werewolf. Hans bounded out of the forest and out to the front gate- sure enough, he saw a canine shadow in the fog. A lone wolf was approaching the gate. His tail wagged back and forth- he had to get out there before the guards decided to shoot the wolf.

Hans stepped back from the gate, giving himself a few yards. He took a second to breathe, then raced towards the gate, cutting a line through the fog on the ground. He was five feet from the gate when he leapt, the powerful bound sending him flying over it. The fog rushed to cover him as he flew in an arc, trailing behind him like the tail of a comet. He landed on two feet in front of the wolf, the fog flying away to reveal his imposing figure. The wolf wasn't startled, but the guards behind him certainly were. As they got out their swears and exclamations of surprise, Hans stood to his full height and turned to them. Between his hat, his coat, and his hair, the guards could only see one red eye staring them down. He didn't need to say a word- the soldiers knew he wanted them gone. The guards retreated through the gate and onto the Hellsing compound as silently as possible (and that really wasn't very silent at all, given that they were still swearing to themselves).

Hans nodded to himself, then turned to the wolf in front of him. The old female looked back up at him with a wagging tail and a lolling tongue. Were she not a werewolf, he'd have estimated she was about ten or eleven years old. Of course, that meant she was more along the lines of several centuries old, perhaps even older than Alucard. Her fur was a faded grey and her eyes a vibrant orange despite her age. A scar ran across her muzzle, though fur had grown over it, and one of her ears had a large triangular chunk taken out of the side. The air around her crackled with power, the kind of power that gathers around you as you age and master the magic Nature gave you; the charge in the air was reminiscent of a nascent lightning bolt waiting to form. And despite this, despite her age, she was still wagging her tail merrily.

The voice of a little old German woman breezed into his mind; "_So the rumors about Hellsing taking in Millennium's stray were right_."

"_I had no idea I was so famous, Madame_," Hans replied. "_But I know for a fact you're not here for me_."

She cocked her head to the side, laughing in his mind; "_Oh yes, you're too well fed to be one of mine. I suppose introductions are in order. Among my own I simply go by Alpha, but if that's too odd you can call me Grishild_."

Hans dipped his head down in a formal bow; "_It's an honor to meet you, Madame Alpha. Are you here for Leon?_"

Grishild laughed again, scratching behind her ear as she wondered, "_Leon? That's the name he gave you? I swear, he's far too concerned with his true name for one so young. The pack calls him Sifridus, but yes, I'm here for a blonde pup with not enough sense and too much piss and vinegar. Sound familiar?_"

Hans smiled behind the collar of his coat; "_I'll admit, I don't know the boy very well, but that sounds like him,_" A thought occurred to the werewolf, and his smile fell, "_You are here in the interest of diplomacy, I hope._"

The alpha wolf paused in scratching herself to look up at Hans; "_I may be strong, boy, but I'm too old to go breaking into the stronghold of the world's greatest vampire hunting organization by myself guns blazing. Of course I'm here for diplomacy._" Hans nodded again; as he did, he caught a shadow rippling out of the corner of his eye and felt the air hum around him at a familiar pitch. He smiled once more- Alucard was back. He hadn't even been aware the vampire had left, but he was definitely back.

Hans turned his eyes back to the Alpha and was going to speak again, but another familiar presence spoke up behind him; "Should I let Sir Hellsing know ve haff a guest, Hans?" Hans looked over his shoulder to see Rip smirking up at him from behind the gate. He turned back to the old werewolf, an eyebrow raised.

"_Of course_," the Alpha replied, "_I'd love to meet the lady of the house, see if any of the rumors did her justice._"

Hans nodded and turned back to Rip; "_Yes, go get Sir Integra. Tell her that our prisoner's pack leader has come to negotiate for him._" Rip nodded and turned on her heel to run her jaunty, bouncing run up the drive and back into the mansion. Hans opened the gate and gestured for Grishild to go on ahead. The old wolf loped in first with a slight limp. Hans closed the gate behind them and walked by the old wolf's side.

"_I take it you've seen a lot of battles in your time, Madame Alpha_," Hans remarked.

A weary chuckle sounded in Hans' mind; "_Oh yes, yes I have. Enough that I'd like to just sit on my porch and watch the world go by. But alas, life isn't that simple_."

Hans was silent for a moment, turning that over and over, before he murmured, "_Indeed, nothing is ever simple_." They were only two or three yards from the door when it opened, Integra nearly tripping through it with Maxwell and Rip Van Winkle behind her. She caught herself and stood up straight with perfect poise. All eyes were focused on Grishild.

"I take it this is the pack leader," Integra remarked, breaking the thirty seconds of silence. Hans nodded before looking to the alpha.

The old wolf wagged her tail; "_Oh yes, I should be a human, shouldn't I?_" She looked up at Hans; "_Young man, would you lend me your coat? I haven't needed to wear clothes for a while, I wouldn't want to be indecent in front of a knight_." Hans nodded and set about to undoing the buttons on his coat. It took him all of five seconds to get it off, revealing his muscular upper body to the world. As the old wolf turned around and he draped his coat over her, Rip looked away from her old friend with a blush while Integra's eyebrows went up and an… _appreciative_ smirk graced her face.

The knight leaned over to Rip and asked, "So you've been working with him for over seventy years and you _never _broke yourself off a piece of that?" Rip's eyes went as wide as they could go, the songstress turning a flourescent pink as she tried to speak in something other than broken stutters. Maxwell's eyebrows shot up at that remark before he glared daggers at the Captain- steam didn't exactly come out of his ears, but that wasn't for lack of trying. After two or three minutes, the little old wolf was replaced with a little old woman in an oversized greatcoat. Her hair was short and thin, the same faded grey as her fur, and her eyes were that same lively orange. Her skin was nearly as dark as Integra's from centuries of sunlight; a faded scar ran across the bridge of her nose, and there was a chunk taken out of her ear. Her smile was bright and warm, full of enough genuine happiness to wrinkle her skin even more.

She walked up to Integra and smiled up at her as she remarked, "Vell, I'm finally face to face vit ze famous Sir Integra Fairbrook Vingates Hellzink. Ze rumors certainly don't zay anyzink about how lufely you are, dear."

Nobody can resist a smile when being genuinely complimented by a little old german German woman, and Integra was no exception; "Thank you, madam, you flatter me."

Grishild shook her head; "It is not flatter, dear. But regardless, I am Grishild, ze Alpha volf of your prisoner's pack. Ze young lady has told you I am here to talk, yes?"

Integra nodded and replied, "She did say you were here to negotiate, madam."

The alpha chuckled and said, "Vell, ve should do zat inside den! Vouldn't vant anyvun to catch a cold out in zis fog. Yes, yes, let us go inside. And, Sir Hellzink, could I trouble you for a cup of tea?"

**September 5th, Israel**

Erin stood in silence for a long time. She stood perfectly quiet and perfectly still for a whole minute. Jan and Kya kept looking to her, looking to each other, looking away, then repeating the process. Ariella's body stood perfectly still, her blank white eyes focused on Erin. Eventually, Erin stood up straight. She pulled air into her lungs, then pushed it out before looking Ariella in the eye.

"Alright," Erin began in a shaking voice, "I can see why you don't want me around. Right now, I kind of don't want me around either."

Ariella's face softened; "I warned you of the sadness this would cause-"

"_Please _let me finish, Lord," Erin interrupted, voice tight. The soldier blinked several times, but stayed silent.

Erin took another deep, shuddering breath; "As I was saying, I understand that you want me dead, and you feel very strongly about that. _But_, Kherev needs my help. And I can't help them with the city trying to kill me. If I don't help them, these false vampires might spread outside of just a few major cities. Our work here could lead us to the source of these problems around the world. I think you see what I'm getting at here, right? So, I'm gonna make a deal with you."

She paused to let out a wheezing laugh, running a hand through her hair with her lips pulled taut in a smile; "Dude. What'll everyone back home think when I tell them I tried to bargain with _God_? Heh…"

She shook her head and looked back to the Israeli operative; "So yeah, about that deal."

Ariella's head tilted to the left; "What do you propose, Erin Sorrel?"

Erin looked ahead unblinking as she decreed, "You tell Jerusalem and any other holy cities I might be around to lay off. You make sure any loyal angels don't come down to kill me. You make sure I can get my job done without any interference from anyone upstairs. And when my job's done…" Erin took another deep breath, the vampiress shaking all over, "You can kill me. Smite me down, or whatever."

Kya and Jan both turned to her, wide-eyed in horror; "_What_?"

"What the hell are you _thinking _Erin?! I mean- I just- what the _fuck_?" Jan exclaimed, voice breaking as he ran his hands through his hair.

"Don't make a bet with your own _life _as a commodity, Sorrel! That's just- do you not value your life at all?!" Kya demanded, eyes wide as they could go.

Erin ignored them to the best of her ability; "So, is that good enough for you, or am I gonna have to haggle with the Powers That Be?"

Ariella stared at her for a few minutes more; if Erin didn't hold God in as much contempt as she did, she would've seen the remorse on the soldier's face.

A sigh escaped Ariella's lips; "I suppose this is a mutually beneficial agreement. Very well, Erin Sorrel, I will cease My hostilities against you until your duty has been done. I apologize that this is what it has come to."

Erin shook her head again with a pained smile. Kya walked on unsteady legs to the light switch, flipping it back off again. The skylight closed, the song ceased, and with a gasp Ariella's eyes rolled back around to reveal her irises. The remorse on her face only grew when her eyes focused on Erin.

"Sorrel, I… I'm so sorry," Ariella whispered. Erin shook her head, making a sound that could pass for a laugh with enough imagination.

"It's… It's fine. I'm fine. I promise, I… I'm fine," Erin rasped. Her eyes were glued to her feet as she made her way towards the stairs. The others exchanged glances; nobody was sure what to say, or who should say it.

Erin grimaced over her shoulder; "Well, come on guys. We should get back to work, right?"

They left the basement in silence.

**September 4th, Unknown Location**

"I'm honestly very impressed, Morinth," She mused as she walked around the circle. "I didn't think anything less than the runes we have around the lab could keep Schrödinger contained. Truly I feel rather stupid for not sitting in while you worked on this all this time."

She and her daughter stood in a room that had once served as a traditional dungeon ages ago. Now, it was a prison of a different kind. Schrödinger was floating in the air, spinning slowly and at random as he was contained within an incredibly elaborate confinement circle. The innermost circle was a simple one drawn in gold leaf on the stone floor of the dungeon. Outside of that was a ring of silver set into the floor with ancient words of power etched into it, and outside of _that _were gold plates inscribed with sigils of captivity. Further out from there were glyph-scribed gemstones and ivory rune sticks. Red light poured out of the glyphs and sigils, drowning most of the room in crimson.

Beyond the precious stones were pieces of grotesque art arranged in an even greater circle; they were mostly depictions of bondage and imprisonment, explicitly picked to restrain even the idea of freedom. Upright tuning forks and tubular bells stood outside that, sound ringing forth in gentle, constant waves and focusing the sound into chains. Lastly crystals and prisms were set as the outermost layer of the circle, focusing light through them to refract in dozens of colors that split and bent into many perfect geometric shapes in the air around the circle.

Morinth clasped her hands beneath her chin, smiling a sharp-toothed smile; "You really mean that, Mother? It took me ages to work everything out. I know science can't evolve like magic, but this guy's a tricky one."

"Indeed," She granted, "It's that wily nature that kept our research going for so long. But I do believe we broke through on this last dissection," She turned around and made her way towards the dhampiress, "It took us _far _too long to test his omnipresence in a controlled environment. I don't even want to _think _about how we had to chase him down those first few times. But his regeneration has been far easier to test."

She stopped in front of her daughter, a smile gracing her face; "And I do believe these runes will finally allow us to duplicate this power."

"Should I find a test subject?" Morinth asked, but She dismissed the thought with a wave of her hand.

The elder vampiress grinned; "We all spent hours upon hours on these runes. I'm confident enough to try this myself." She held her left arm out, not really giving her daughter any room to protest. Morinth gulped and hesitantly pulled a calligraphy brush and inkstone out of her sweatshirt pocket. With a muttered word of power, Morinth conjured a drop of water on the tip of her finger. She used it to grind some ink from the stone, dipped her brush in, and with practiced ease she drew runes in an obscure language onto her mother's arm. She started small, just above the elbow, wound around the arm until she ended at the back of her mother's hand, drawing the large, central rune.

She infused all of her will into her last brush stroke, whispering "_Katamaru_" as she lifted her brush. The runes briefly flashed with a low turquoise light, then lay dormant.

She held her arm up to look it over in the bloody light; "Your calligraphy is much better."

Morinth shrugged with a tiny grin. She nodded, then composed herself. She drew in a deep breath, then released it. She poured all her will into the runes…

And she was gone. No build up, no warning, just gone. It was if she'd never been there to begin with. Morinth stared slack-jawed for a moment, then frantically began scribbling notes down on her arm with her calligraphy brush. She'd barely written two sentences when She blinked back into the room, cackling at the top of her lungs. Morinth yelped, dropping her brush and inkstone, before staring bug-eyed and grinning; the magic _worked, _it really _worked_!

"It's perfect, Morinth," She crowed, "I simply believed myself to be where I wished to go, and I was there! There were no adverse side effects, none at all! It's all just as we calculated it would be. Brilliant, _brilliant!_"

Morinth grinned wide; "Where'd you go, Mother?"

She grinned wider, showing off her too white, too sharp teeth; "Oh, here and there. Now, Morinth, head straight back to the labs and record this. I'll deal with cleaning up after this experiment." Morinth nodded rapidly before bounding out of the room, yammering away to herself all the while about this discovery. When her footsteps had disappeared, She turned and picked up the fallen calligraphy brush. With a strong flick of her fingers the ink splattered in an arc along the dungeon floor. The brush now clean, She casually brought up one of her bandages and swiped it across her upper arm. Blood beaded up along the shallow cut on her arm, and without a thought She dipped the brush into her blood. She carefully drew a circle around the outermost layer of Schrödinger's prison in her own blood; once she closed the circle, she went back and drew a rune on each cardinal direction. Lastly, she pulled a few bandages from her dress to wrap around her paper cut. She took a moment to savor the image of Schrödinger trapped in this beautiful work of magic.

She put all her will into her foot as she dragged it through the blood, breaking the circle; "_Emorior._"

Everything collapsed.

The blood circle blazed with red light as the other circles fell in on themselves. The prisms and crystals shattered into thousands of pieces, the light falling inwards and constricting Schrödinger. He let out an incredibly feline yowl of agony. The tuning forks and tubular bells let out ear-splitting shrieks as they broke and bent out of shape. The art pieces tore out of their splintering frames, the canvas and paper catching fire while the sculptures crumbled into dust. The gemstones and ivory rune sticks cracked, breaking apart into chunks; the gold plates suddenly collapsed inward, as if something incredibly strong had just crushed them with its heel. The silver circle groaned under invisible strain before breaking upwards out of the stone, splitting down the middle. A splatter of Schrödinger's blood fell as the light burned into him, falling across the innermost circle and breaking it.

A howl whirled up through the dungeon as the magic surged up from the broken runes. Schrödinger was engulfed in a red torrent of light, sound, and magic. The minute it hit his skin, the creature let loose a high-pitched scream that tore through the howls and screeches surrounding him. It was a purely animal noise of fear and torment, and it made She grin _nearly_ wide enough to split her face in two. The tide of magic flooded up and hit the ceiling, scattering in all directions and dissipating into the air as more rose up to replace it. The torrent turned from red to blue, from blue to purple, from purple to white. The sounds of outrage grew loud enough to drown out Schrödinger's cries- either that, or his cries had gone silent. She could just barely make out faces in the tempest of magic, visages of horror, outrage, and (to Her delight) maniacal glee.

The surge took a moment or two to slow down- it went slower and slower, tapering off into wisps of grey that curled away and disappeared into the air. Once it was gone, all that was left to float up into the air was smoke from the destroyed components of the prison. A scorched, smoking skeleton the size of a preteen boy fell to the floor in the center of the ruined circle. Some of the bones crumbled into ash on impact with the cold stone. As She tiptoed around the wreckage of the circle, the elder vampiress grimaced at the thought of cleaning all this up. She'd have to do it fast, too- no _doubt _Morinth would be devastated seeing what had become of her hard work, and a hysterical subordinate was the worst kind of subordinate.

She leaned down to inspect the skeleton; there were no holes on the sides of the skeleton's head for a human inner ear. Instead, she found those holes at the top of the head. The teeth were too sharp for a human mouth. She smiled a bit, but her investigation wasn't quite done. One of her bandages rose up and shot into the empty eye socket, probing around in the skull. The brain cavity, especially. The bandage glided over smooth bone and an empty head; it came back covered in soot. Her smile grew just a fraction, but there was one last thing to do. She waded out of the circle, checked her feet to make sure she didn't step on any fragments of jewel or broken picture frame, then continued out and turned around at the very edge of the room.

She closed her eyes, gathered up all her will in the spot between her eyebrows, and called upon her Sight. She wasn't at all surprised to see that the walls of the dungeon were caked in the last impressions of dying men, women and children, and that stale wisps of terror and pain still hung in the air. There were impressions of maniacal, sadistic joy from the torturers, but all of that was long since past. In the center of the room She could see the absolute vomit of color that was the impression of the recent magical implosion; she squinted, looking as close as she could at the imprint for any pesky spirits with feline ears.

She searched and searched with all of her senses, and couldn't find anything.

The elder vampiress closed her third eye and grinned in earnest; "I suppose it would be hard for someone to recognize themselves with their brain burnt to cinders and their soul wiped off out of the earthly plane."

She clapped her hands together, about to begin a perfectly good cackle, when something from a different set of eyes far away flashed through her vision. She watched carefully through these gilded eyes. Her mind worked quickly, and her grin only grew.

"Darling," She called to the air, "Be a dear and send someone out to meet them?"

_If anyone thinks I made God too inconsistent… Well, that's probably true, but if you read the bible you'll realize I'm not just pulling that out of my hat. Dude has moodswings like a motherfucker._


	6. Still Catch the Tide

**Fandom:** Hellsing, Twilight, Durarara!, Bayonetta, and oh so much more… Basically, I don't know the meaning of the term "overly convoluted".

**Title:** Hostilities _or_ Alliances 2: Electric Boogaloo

**Rating:** T

**Pairing(s):** More than I can think to list

**Genre:** Adventure, Drama, Romance, Humor

**Warning(s):** Blood, violence, gore, sexual themes, language, OOC, OC's

**Dedicated:** Master of the Boot, my mentor in all things fanfiction who has helped me become the writer I am now.

**Summary:** It's been two years, nearly three- London is only partially rebuilt, the vampire queen She is on the loose, dens of false vampires have been popping up around the world, Germany is experiencing a werewolf epidemic, Seras and Pip are traveling the world in search of a necromancer/witch/Unseelie fae, Rip Van Winkle is sporting a fedora, and Alucard watches My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. We're in for quite a ride.

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing except for the plot and all OCs.

**Author Notes:** Let's just take a moment to think about how it took me _years_ to realize that I'd made a typo in _the main title of the story_.

**Chapter VI - Still Catch the Tide**

**September 5th, England**

"Guys, we've had stupid ideas in the past, but I'd say this is one of the stupidest," Kallenna groused, shuffling into Integra's office on Heinkell and Yumie's heels. While everyone else was seeing to their lycanthropic guest, they'd taken their eyes completely off the three Iscariot soldiers. And when one of those soldiers was Yumie… Well, mischief was all but guaranteed.

An easy laugh spilled from Heinkell's mouth as she retrieved a lock-pick from her coat; "Live a little, Kallenna. Besides, if zey catch us, ve can easily pull ze 'no secrets betveen allies' thing Maxwell does whenever Integra's being tricky."

Kallenna frowned; "Maxwell only gets away with that because Integra wants to ride him like she stole him. I _really _don't think we can pull that card."

As Heinkell made a beeline for a filing cabinet and picked the lock, Yumie leaned on Integra's desk and drawled, "Have you _seen _me, Kallenna? I'll just show a little leg and Integra will be eating outta my hand."

"Oh no you _von't_," Heinkell snapped, rapping Yumie over the head with a handful of manila folders.

Yumie pouted; "_Ugh_, you're such a buzzkill these days. You never used to have a problem with me flaunting what I've got."

Heinkell smirked; "Well, zat vas before I lost my good finger. Gotta be mindful of ze competition ven you're at a disadvantage." A giggle bubbled out of Yumie while Kallenna's eyes went wide; well it looked like _that _rumor was true. In hindsight, she wondered why she hadn't suspected it before. Before she could go over all the evidence she'd willfully ignored, a folder hit her chest and she scrambled to catch it before it hit the floor. When she got a good grip on it, she caught sight of SELMHAN, KALLENNA J. printed in large black letters on the tab. She held it up and inspected the folder- on the front of it, there was a stamp of Iscariot's emblem and some chicken-scratch she vaguely recognized as Integra's handwriting. After some good squinting, she deciphered the scrawl- Integra had scribbled ISCARIOT PERSONNEL INTELLIGENCE FILE #31 next to the stamp.

"Guys, there probably isn't anything interesting in here," the younger woman mumbled. She resisted the temptation to open the file for all of three seconds. However, what she found was disappointing. There was a two-page brief summarizing her history up until joining Iscariot and her abilities, observations on how she worked with certain other Iscariot operatives, short reports of all the missions she'd completed up to this point, a few photographs, and that was about it. It was everything she'd expected, though her eyes did linger on the summary of her history. Details stuck out here and there, oddly specific ones as well- how her mother hadn't been in the picture and instead she'd been raised by her grandmother and father, how her performance in school had been average in all areas but physical education, little things she didn't think were even in her Iscariot dossier. She felt a jolt of bitter taste on the back of her tongue; she could only wonder how much Erin had contributed to this biography.

Heinkell snorted as she read through her file; "_Lame_. Zis is basically just vat zey have in my dossier back home."

"Well no offense, Hein'," Yumie remarked as she lazily leafed through the pages in her file, "But it's not like you've got that many juicy secrets Hellsing would want to get their hands on."

Heinkell shot her partner a glare; "Oh, and you do?"

Kallenna put a hand to her chin; "Now that you mention it there seems to be a bit more paper in your file than in ours-"

Yumie hastily closed her file and shoved it back into the drawer, exclaiming, "Guys, we should see what they've got on Father Anderson!" Now _this _made Kallenna and Heinkell perk up; despite their closeness, Anderson was still a mystery to them. Hellsing seemed to have everything on the three women that was worth having, so their file on Anderson had to have at least _something _interesting on their mentor.

The room dropped half a degree in temperature as a dark voice grumbled, "Don't get too excited. I've made sure to read through that file every time Integra updates it- we don't know any more about the Paladin than you do." All three women's hands went flying to their weapons as Alucard materialized across the room, appearing out of a particularly dark shadow cast by a bookshelf. The elder vampire crossed his arms over his chest and frowned at their knee-jerk reaction to his presence.

"Are you going to do that _every _time I show up? It was amusing the first time, especially since I thought I'd get to fight you, but if you keep doing it I promise you it'll just get stale," Alucard sighed.

"Hey, cut us some slack. It's hard to unlearn years of being told zat seeing you meant certain death," Heinkell snapped. Nevertheless, the Iscariot soldiers slowly took their hands off their weapons, though the uncontrollable trembling would take a while to stop.

Alucard smiled and put a hand over his heart; "I'm touched! That's perhaps the sweetest thing anyone's ever said about me." It took the vampire three long strides to stand beside the drawer. Not for the first time Kallenna marveled at just how _tall _Alucard was- it was a lot easier to notice than with Anderson. Anderson was just sort of large in general, combining height with muscle. Alucard, however, only had broad shoulders to offset his verticality (and even then Kallenna suspected that might just come from his coat- she'd never seen him without it, so she couldn't know for sure). For how intimidating he was, the vampire certainly was a lanky thing. Alucard didn't even need to look at the drawer as he plucked Anderson's file out and opened it. There was only one sheet of paper inside.

Alucard closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and recited, "Official Title: Father Alexander Anderson. Unofficial Titles: Paladin Anderson, Executioner Anderson, Bayonet Anderson, 'Off With Its Head' Anderson, 'Dust to Dust' Anderson. Place of Birth: Unknown. Age: Unknown. Origins: Unknown. Skills: Expert monster hunter with regenerative abilities. He appears capable of healing any wound, though it's hypothesized that a constant bombardment of damage or a complete destruction of his body all at once could be beyond his regenerative scope. His strength, speed, and stamina are beyond human, rivaled only by Alucard. EDIT 20 DECEMBER 2009: There is a strong possibility that She also has physical capabilities that match or outclass Anderson. He is intelligent and capable of strategic thinking, but similarly to Alucard he seems to prefer a straight fight for the simple value of entertainment.

"Personal Notes: Anderson shows great esteem for his fellow Iscariot operatives, in particular Kallenna Selmhan (Iscariot's youngest field operative, fellow regenerator, perhaps a more personal student of Anderson's). Despite his biases towards the Catholic doctrine, Anderson has been shown to have a sense of personal honor and principle that can be exploited. However, exploitation appears unnecessary, since he seems to cooperate with us well enough as long as it's on the orders of Enrico Maxwell. EDIT 21 DECEMBER 2010, Personal Note from Integra Hellsing: If their interactions when outside of combat are any indicator, Alucard and Anderson are becoming friends, or whatever passes for friends among people as psychologically warped as they are. So that's a thing."

Alucard shut the file and frowned as he opened his eyes; "I'm going to try and get her to redact that note. It's bad for my image."

Heinkell's eyebrows went up and she looked over her sunglasses at the vampire; "And you have zat file memorized vord for vord."

Alucard shrugged in his customarily 'too easy to be anything but practiced' manner; "It doesn't hurt to be one step ahead of your enemy."

Yumie snorted; "Oh yeah, you guys are _such _bitter enemies. _Real _deep dark blood feud. I genuinely agonize over Anderson's safety when he comes to blows with you-"

The vampire slitted his red-orange eyes in a glare, cutting her off with, "Maxwell and Integra are exactly thirty seconds from coming in here."

Scrambling, tripping and swearing, Heinkell and Kallenna shot to the filing cabinet, shoved their files back and slammed the drawer shut. Alucard just smirked and let out a dark chuckle. They'd just barely gotten to their feet again when the massive doors slammed open. Maxwell and Integra were at the head of a small cluster of people, but they stopped in the doorway at the sight of their subordinates. Heinkell, Yumie and Kallenna tried their best to look innocent while Alucard had realized long ago that he could never pull that look off. He settled for looking insufferably smug instead.

Maxwell narrowed his eyes and demanded, "What are you three doing in here?"

Integra frowned over at Alucard; "What are they doing in here?"

Another too easy shrug from Alucard; "Don't ask me. I just came in to read a favorite piece of mine when I saw them slinking about." He wiggled the file in his hand, prompting Integra to roll her eyes as she walked towards her desk.

"And I thought I asked you _politely _to take that note from last December out of there," Alucard continued, frowning at Integra as she passed.

She smirked over her shoulder; "Now why would I do that when you keep letting me know how much it bothers you? More to the point, I don't pay you to snoop around."

Alucard's scowl deepened; "You don't pay me at all!" Alucard was too busy frowning at the knight's back to notice Maxwell casually plucking Anderson's file out of his hand. Maxwell looked over the page, eyebrows arching just slightly as he let out a low hum.

"Well well," Iscariot's leader remarked in a low voice, "You know just as much about him as I do." Every set of eyebrows in the vicinity arched in perfect time.

"How can you know next to nothing about your most competent soldier?" Integra wondered, furrowing her eyebrows.

Maxwell shrugged, handing the file back to Alucard as he replied, "Well, the man may have raised me, but there's nothing in the world he likes to talk about less than himself. He was already firmly established as Iscariot's crown jewel long before I even came to the orphanage. As far as everyone knows, he's always been here."

"Well there have to be more detailed records on him somewhere," Kallenna piped up.

"If there are, I haven't found them," Maxwell muttered.

Alucard put a hand to his chin, eyes flickering over to the Germans as they filed into the room. When he felt the air humming at a strangely firm but gentle pitch, he angled his eyes downward to rest between Captain Günsche and the werewolf prisoner. A little old woman in a dress probably borrowed from an older member of the maid staff stood between them, smiling a sunny smile with a cup of tea in her hands.

Alucard only needed to sniff the air once to put two and two together.

The vampire's eyes widened and he turned to Integra; "Why wasn't I informed that an elder werewolf would be here?"

"Because I didn't know she'd be here until she was on our front porch," Integra replied, sliding into her chair. "She's the alpha of our prisoner's pack, here to talk diplomacy."

Alucard turned gracefully on his heel back to face Grishild and bowed low; "It is an honor to meet an elder of your standing, Alpha."

Grishild smirked into her tea; "My my my, ze Undead King himself… Does Sir Hellzing really not pay you?"

Alucard chuckled, perhaps the warmest sound that had ever come out of his mouth; "I rarely leave this mansion for any purpose other than murder and can't quit. Paying me would be a waste of Hellsing's resources."

Grishild looked at Alucard for a long time, then remarked, "You really need a life outside of work." As she took a decisive sip of her tea, Alucard could only gawk at the werewolf elder. Well… He couldn't exactly say she was wrong.

"Now, to business," Integra began, leaning forward and steepling her fingers. "I'd like to hear–"

_BRRRRRRRIIINNGGG!_

Thirty percent of the room stifled a laugh and Integra just pinched the bridge of her nose. Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing hated two things above all else– being interrupted (a lifelong hatred) and that phone (a hatred that had only surfaced in the past two years). The two things combined…

After a deep breath and a muttered plea for her guest to wait a moment, Integra picked up the phone; "Sir Hellsing speaking."

"My _my _Young Mistress, I can barely recognize your voice," a silky smooth voice replied on the other end. "Has it really been so long?"

Integra's eyes widened; "… _Bayonetta_?!" From the corner of her eye the knight saw Alucard's customary grin come back in full force.

"You wanted a witch, your little bat got you the best one in the business," the witch laughed. Before she could say any more, there were some loud scrambling noises and sounds that Integra could only say sounded like a dog's squeaky toy under extreme emotional duress.

The noises were quickly replaced with Seras; "I'm so sorry, Sir. She insisted you wouldn't believe me if she didn't speak to you in person."

After a moment, Integra sighed, "Honestly, she's right. I didn't tell you about her because she's incredibly selfish– I thought she wouldn't help us unless we gave her all the money we've saved on not paying Alucard. You know we couldn't take a deal like that without going bankrupt."

She could hear Bayonetta shout "Rude!" from somewhere behind Seras, but ignored her as the draculina replied, "Well, I don't know exactly why, but she's helping us for free. There isn't time for a full report, so I'll just say that we've touched down in Ireland. Bayonetta has friends among the faerie and she volunteered to help us find one who will help."

Integra couldn't help smiling to herself; "Seras… I appreciate your dedication, but I'll be honest: With Bayonetta alone on our side we stand ten times more of a chance than we did two minutes ago. You don't have to find a fae. Since you're so close… Just come on home."

Seras immediately exclaimed, "But Sir, I can't do that! Remember what you told us before we left: She's not just strong, She's charismatic. She's a threat because She can get numbers and strength on Her side with just a few words. We need all the help we can get."

The knight bit the inside of her lower lip; "First of all, you're right. Second of all, you've _also _been gone for far too long. I'll give you two days in Ireland. But after that, you're all to come home, no questions asked. Is that clear?"

Integra could almost _hear _Seras nodding enthusiastically; "As crystal, Sir. You can count on us."

"That, I've never doubted," Integra murmured as she hung up. She took a brief moment to stare wistfully at the freshly hung-up phone… Before picking it up and throwing it out the window with a primal shriek of frustration. While everyone else in the room gawked at the broken window and broken phone on the lawn below, Integra tucked some hair behind her ear with a satisfied smile.

"I've been wanting to do that for two years," she muttered to Grishild. Grishild just raised her tea cup, and Integra raised her Number One Boss mug in kind.

Integra snapped her fingers, bringing the attention back to her desk; "Alright, to business _again_. I'd like to hear what you have to say about your kind's new hunting habits, Grishild. You have the floor." Grishild's smile fell. She slowly placed her teacup on Integra's desk, smoothed out her skirt, and stared Integra down with solemn eyes.

"My pack and countless more are going zrough a crisis," the Alpha wolf began in a measured tone, "Our brothers and sisters disappear, and either return dead or not at all. Wiz less and less adults, we have less and less pups. Now our young are being killed. Our numbers are droppink, quicker and quicker by ze day. Ve cannot hunt vizout a full pack, so ve must take easy prey to survive."

Kallenna's eyes narrowed; "I find it hard to believe humans are your desperation option– We're not _that_ easy to kill."

Without missing a beat, Grishild countered, "First, you are covered in ze stench of vhite magic, Regenerator. You villingly gave away your claim to humanity. Second, humans are only dangerous in a mob. One or two on zeir own are an easy meal." Heinkell's hands hovered over her pistols. Sifridus started growling deep in his throat, eyes locked on Heinkell, daring her to draw.

Alucard cleared his throat; "I hate to be the voice of reason or the authority on any kind of tact, but I'd refrain from talking any more about how easy prey humans are unless you want a silver bullet lodged in your pack-mate's temple."

"Stand down, Sifridus," Grishild snapped, reaching up to smack the boy on the back of the head. He let out a very canine yelp of shock before bowing his head, eyes focusing on the floor. Maxwell only sent Heinkell a stern glare from across the room, but it had much the same effect– her eyes were glued to the floor before Maxwell could even look away.

"I did not come here simply to explain our side," Grishild continued, drawing all eyes back to her. "I came here to seek Hellsing's aid… We have a common enemy."

Integra leaned even further forward, eyes shining with interest; "So you know who's been killing your pack members?"

"Ve have two clues," Grishild replied. "Ze first is zat somezing… unnatural has appeared in our territory. Zings zat kill humans but do not eat them. Zey transform as we do, but zeir form… It is _wrong_."

"_Wrong how?_" Hans spoke up, eyes narrowing in thought.

Grishild frowned, the expression cutting deep furrows in her aged face; "Zey transform into volf-men, as Hans' breed could. But zey have no mist, and cannot become true wolves. Zey have no connection to ze Earth– it rejects zem. Zey behave as madmen, laughing and howling as zey hunt humans for sport. Zey are of no pack we have ever seen before."

Integra narrowed her eyes; "And the second clue?"

Grishild's frown deepened into a scowl, and she growled, "Ze creatures, our dead, zey all _reek _of a particular scent. Of Her scent. I do not know your name for Her– ve have called Her many zings. To me, She shall alvays be Ze Ancient Leech."

Silence.

At once, everyone was shocked, yet not surprised at all. It was only a matter of time until they'd run into She– they just didn't think it would be so soon. Suddenly, two years of preparation felt like far too little.

Alucard was the first to speak up, sneering, "I'm a bit disappointed– I wish I'd had more time to savor my rematch with Her."

Integra's ice blue eyes flickered over to Alucard, cutting into him as she snapped, "No. We need you here, as close to our central command as possible. You're our last line of defense– We need you here to defend what's most important."

Alucard's shadow stretched out, connecting to all the others in the room as he hissed, "Keeping me chained up here is a waste. _Your_ ancestors made me into a weapon, not a shield."

"Whoever said you were a shield? You're a nuclear deterrent, you always have been," Integra replied. "The threat of retaliation with you at the helm is enough to give anyone pause."

"Not She," Alucard growled. He took a few steps backward into a shadow, the blackness wrapping around him as he melted away from them all. The temperature increased by half a degree and the hair on the back of everyone's necks settled down– Alucard had truly left the room. And yet, nobody was quite ready to speak again. Integra was still glaring quite intently at the shadow her servant had escaped through; this conversation was far from over.

Maxwell broke the silence; "Alucard did have a point, even if it was mired in his own bloodlust. Now that we know She's involved, we need to get serious about this matter."

"But we also have to be careful," Integra murmured, rubbing at her mouth as she thought, "We don't want to get Her full force dropped on our heads before we're ready."

"Zen use zis as an opportunity to make zat force smaller," Sifridus spoke up.

All eyes turned to the juvenile werewolf, who for a moment could only meekly rub the back of his neck. After a moment of silence, he continued, "You're preparing for a var against Her, right? It only makes sense zat She'd be preparing too. Vhatever it is she's doing in our territory, it probably comes back to her var effort. Zo if you can ztop or at least pause her actions zere, it'll make her veaker ven she finally attacks you head on."

Integra gave Sifridus the ghost of a smirk; "Decent tactics. But very difficult to execute. Doubtless if She gets wind of anything we do to Her war effort there she'll drop the hammer."

"Then we need to minimize that risk," Maxwell cut in, "Send additional operatives to assist Anderson in his current efforts, but not so many that we'll arouse suspicion."

"At the same time, they'll need cover," Integra countered. "And even with Anderson at the helm a handful of operatives against She's cannon fodder is a match we can't win."

Grishild's voice broke through the back-and-forth; "My pack vill assist yours."

It took ten seconds before Integra could pick her jaw up off the floor and respond; "Madame Alpha, I couldn't ask that of you. Your pack is weakened–"

"A counterattack vould seem like business as usual from a group of starving and desperate wolves," Grishild cut in, smiling softly as she picked up her tea once again. "Zere are still enough of us to mask the scent of your operatives vere zey to travel amongst us, and enough of us are still strong enough to support ze members of your pack you send viz us."

She chuckled into her tea; "Zough now zat I know ze Paladin vill be wiz us, I doubt ve vill get much chance to fight at all."

The Alpha wolf looked into Integra's eyes; "I told you ve had a common enemy. It vould be a pleasure and an honor to take Her down alongside your soldiers." Integra swallowed hard, staring down at the wood of her desk. For a moment, despite the crowd in her office, she felt oddly alone.

She looked up and met Grishild's eyes with a strained but honest smile; "I'm humbled by your support, Madame. But I must ask you, when you return, send off as many of your young or old as you can. If only for my peace of mind."

The Alpha wolf shook her head with a grandmotherly chuckle; "Sir Hellzing, you are a knight and a leader. Peace of mind is vat you give up ven you take zis responsibility." Integra nodded to herself– she knew that all too well.

"Alright, who should we send?" Integra asked, looking over everyone in the room.

Maxwell put a hand to his chin in thought, then said, "Heinkell, Kallenna, you'll be returning to Germany with the werewolves."

Heinkell furrowed her eyebrows; "Just Kallenna and me? You're having Yumie stay behind?"

"Why can't I go?!" Yumie blurted out, stepping forward with a hand on the hilt of her sword. Heinkell threw her arm out, blocking Yumie's advance; the berserker nun glared through her bangs at her partner, but took her hand off her sword regardless.

"This is a mission that requires the utmost finesse," Maxwell stated. "Kallenna and Heinkell usually have more than enough to compensate for your wild and destructive nature, but we can't afford to make any mistakes. You'll be staying here with Alucard as our defense."

Yumie glared daggers at Maxwell, grumbling, "How _dare _you make me commiserate with _Alucard_."

Rip stepped forward, pushing through the others to stand where Alucard had been; "Sir Hellzing? Hans and I vould like to be assigned to zis mission."

Maxwell frowned at the slender girl; "Of course not. The two of you are–" Integra held her hand up, silencing her counterpart.

"Make your case and make it good, Van Winkle," Integra said, leaning back in her chair and pinning Rip to the spot with her trenchant gaze.

Rip nodded once, standing as straight and as still as she used to when addressing her superiors in the Third Reich; "Hans can communicate wiz ze wolf pack en masse and strategize with zem to make zem more effective as cover and as backup. Ze two of us know ze area incredibly well. We have ze skillset required to pull zis off wiz a delicate touch. We're both native German speakers and–"

"That's enough," Integra cut in. Rip's jaw snapped shut and she went stock still.

The knight left her subordinate hanging for a brief moment, then smiled; "You've convinced me. Captain Günsche, Officer Van Winkle, you are to accompany the wolves when they return to Germany. Remember– Kallenna and Heinkell are our allies. Fight with by their side as you would with any of our men."

Maxwell's violet eyes flicked over to Kallenna and Heinkell, and through gritted teeth he muttered, "They're not Millennium soldiers anymore. Just try to remember that." Kallenna and Heinkell shared a glance and a shrug.

Sifridus let out a small laugh as he chirped, "Alright, perfect! Ve should head for Germany immediately–" Once again, Grishild smacked him on the back of the head.

"Boy, I ran across ze continent and swam ze English Channel to get here and save your sorry behind," the elder werewolf snapped, "I for one am not leaving for at least six more hours."

Integra's smiled only widened; "She's right, Sifridus. We'll need time to prepare. Tomorrow morning is the soonest we can move out. For now, you and your Alpha should get some rest."

Sifridus stared at Integra for a long time before he wondered, "Do I have to go back to my cell or…?"

**September 5th, Ireland**

"Remind me again," Pip grunted as he adjusted the load on his shoulder, "Why can't _you_ carry zis fish?"

Bayonetta smiled a sickly sweet smile as she walked ahead of the Hellsing operatives (and Izaya); "I didn't give you that because I can't carry the fish, dear. I gave it to you because the fish smell is covering up your dead smell."

Pip rolled his eyes with a grumbled French expletive, but kept quiet. The four of them were almost to their destination anyway, though three quarters of the party had no idea why they were here or what they were doing. The first real stop they'd gone to in Dublin had been a fish market, and without a word to them Bayonetta had purchased a gigantic fish (Seras had guessed it was some kind of tuna) then raced off with them in tow. Now, the four of them were making their way down a grassy hill to a beach overlooking the Irish Sea. Seras rubbed her arms with a grimace– it was nice to be under cloud cover and not in danger of burning in the sunlight, but the cold wasn't as welcome a change.

When the four of them hit the sand, Bayonetta stopped abruptly and turned on her heel to face the others; "Alright, Pip– place the fish near the surf, but not so close that anything that comes out to get it won't have to come entirely out of the water to do so. Izaya, I'm going to need you to draw a large circle in the sand– large enough that it won't be noticed by something lower the the ground, but not so large that the tide can break it. Keep it open on the side facing the sea."

"What are we even doing?" Pip wondered as he went to place the fish.

Bayonetta let out a small chuckle; "My dear soldier, weare giving ourselves the advantage in this negotiation." Pip didn't get it, but that explanation seemed to be enough for Izaya. With a light shrug and a mischievous smirk, he retrieved Saika from his arm and used the tip of her blade to draw a large circle around the fish. He left a two foot gap in the circle on the side facing the sea. Bayonetta looked over their handiwork, and after a moment she nodded her approval. The Umbra witch stepped over the circle's boundaries, stopping when she was just above the fish.

"Anyone have a knife?" she called over her shoulder as she took off one of her gloves. Pip unstrapped a serrated combat knife from his belt and tossed it to the witch, who caught it expertly. Bayonetta bit down on the inside of her lip and sliced open her palm; Seras immediately covered her nose and mouth, her fangs digging into her own lip. Bayonetta squeezed her hand into a fist over the tuna, her blood dribbling down onto it. When she figured there was enough, Bayonetta wrapped her glove around her hand as a temporary bandage and tossed the knife back to Pip.

Finally, Bayonetta stepped out of the circle and stopped a foot away from the opening Izaya left. She turned to the sea, cupped her hands around her mouth and called out to the water. A cadence of lilting syllables in a language none of the others recognized spilled from the witch's mouth, and she repeated it two more times, saying it the exact same way each time.

Seras leaned over to Izaya and whispered, "Is that an incantation?"

Izaya shook his head; "No. That's something's True Name. This is a summoning ritual– Honestly, it's rather basic. I'd have expected a little more flash from an Umbra Witch."

"Don't fix what isn't broken, love," Bayonetta called over her shoulder with an impish wink.

For a moment, the beach was as calm as it had been just moments before. The second Seras was beginning to think it wasn't working, a large wave roared in. The water crashed down a few feet from Bayonetta, and when the tide receded… There was a seal. A female Grey Seal, to be specific. Now Seras was even more suspicious that whatever Bayonetta had done either hadn't worked or was completely pointless. The seal used its front flippers to crawl up the beach, making a beeline for the fish. When it was just above the fish, the seal's head split perfectly in half– Seras had to stifle a small, high-pitched scream, and covered her eyes.

But when she peeked through her fingers, she didn't see a bisected seal. Sitting in front of the tuna with a mostly-bisected seal-pelt pooled around her waist was a naked woman. Her dark hair was soaked through, and her wide eyes were a bright reflective green. She was grinning at the large fish with a mouth full of sharp teeth, rubbing her hands together like a cartoon character.

Seras could only gape before stammering, "Th-that's a selkie… S-selkies are real."

Pip's jaw was also on the sandy floor, so he could only nod lamely in response. Izaya just shrugged; "You're far too surprised by this. You're a vampire– If you're real, why can't everything else be real?" The selkie took one last second to giggle to herself over her luck before chomping into the fish. Bayonetta watched her eat intently, and the second the selkie swallowed a piece of the fish that she'd bled on the witch ran into the circle. Quick as a flash, she yanked the seal pelt off of the selkie and ran for the circle's opening. The selkie let out a cry of shock, scrambling after Bayonetta on legs unused to to walking.

Bayonetta beat her to the circle's edge, drawing in the rest of it with all her will pooled into her toe. The circle snapped shut and the selkie ran face first into an invisible wall. She landed flat on her ass, swearing loudly in Irish as her butt hit the sand. Bayonetta threw the selkie's pelt over her shoulder with a grin while Seras and Pip were still trying to track down exactly what had happened in the last ten and a half seconds.

The selkie growled and shouted up at Bayonetta through a thick Irish brogue, "You're a fuckin' wagon, Bayonetta! Eight years I don't see you and the first thing you do is take my pelt and trap me in a circle?!"

Bayonetta put her hands on her hips with a pout; "Now Kathleen, dear, don't act so cross. This is just business. Would you have come out of the sea to talk if I hadn't gone to all this trouble?"

"Kathleen" stared at Bayonetta for a few seconds before crossing her arms over her chest and muttering, "You're still a dirty snake."

Seras cocked her head to the side; "Kathleen? But that's not the name you used to call her here…"

The Selkie frowned over her shoulder at Seras and snapped, "Christ, you're some mog. True names are _private_, understand? Even if you know 'em, you don't go advertising them. That makes a big hames of everything."

Bayonetta crossed her arms over her chest and gave Seras a disapproving look over her glasses; "Honestly, this is Supernatural Creatures 101, Little Bat. Why do you think your master calls himself Alucard? And do you honestly think Bayonetta is my real name? You really are a child."

Seras threw her arms out wide and shouted, "_Excuse me _for only being two years into this vampire thing!"

"Huh, that explains it," Kathleen noted as she settled into a comfortable sitting position, "Her true name wouldn't be worth much– she's practically a baby."

"I'm twenty-four god damn it!" Seras shrieked, stamping her foot.

Bayonetta ignored her, turning her eyes back down to Kathleen; "To business. We need someone from the Winter Court. Anyone sentient should work."

Kathleen slitted her eyes in a glare; "You're working with Hellsing. Give me some proof they're not gonna kill whoever I point you to."

The Umbra Witch's eyes hardened; "The fact that I'm with them at all should be proof enough. You know Integra has a policy– anything that isn't causing trouble gets to live."

Kathleen snorted, leaning back on her hands as she sneered, "Tell that to the Unstet Coven in Galway. Or in Edinburgh. Kent. Denali. Forks. Cairo. Should I go on?"

Bayonetta could taste something sour on the back of her tongue, but ignored it best she could; "Yes, that policy is all but void when vampires are involved. But you know she doesn't touch Fae. She's not equipped for it."

Kathleen leaned forward on her haunches as she growled, "Nosferatu and Dullahan are only seven degrees away. Same for White Court and Sidhe. You're doing a shit job of convincing me, Bayonetta."

"Miss Kathleen," Seras piped up as she stopped at the other end of the circle, "We just need one person. And… we need their help. We need to disconnect a ghost and a person. If any fae you know can do that–"

"You already have Bayonetta, and that smug feen in the furry coat reeks of black magic," Kathleen cut in, "What do you need a fae for when you've got them?"

Seras wrung her hands as she replied, "The ghost was brought back by someone particularly strong. An ancient vampire… We call Her She."

The selkie's large eyes went wide; "You're pure cracked! Going against Her is suicide!"

The draculina nodded; "Yes, it is. But She declared war, and we need all the allies we can get."

Kathleen threw her hands in the air and shouted, "This is _She_ you're talking about! Vampire Queen, Devil's Consort, Nightwalker! There ain't any shame in turning tail against Her."

Seras shook her head; "If we don't fight Her, She'll hurt a lot of good people. Running away isn't an option."

The selkie stared at the sand, then blew some hair out of her face and muttered, "Rorain Maloney."

Seras blinked in surprise; "Huh?"

"Rorain Maloney," Kathleen repeated, louder this time, "A Dullahan living up in Badrick. He never mixed with other Fae, at least not Winter Court ones. He makes his way pretending to be a human priest, but he's decent with magic. Thing is though, lots of Winter Court folk don't agree with him mixing with humans. I'm Wyldfae, I couldn't give a continental fuck about what he does with his life."

Kathleen leaned forward, steepling her fingers as she continued in a lower voice, "Word in the north part of the sea's that a Winter Sidhe, a Puca and another Dullahan are cooking something up for him, and it's happening tonight. Get to him fast if you want him– and if he comes with you, take care of him, wouldja? He's a bleedin' gimp, but he's a nice guy."

Bayonetta gave Kathleen a curt nod and a smile; "Pleasure doing business with you, Kathleen. Swim safely, dear." She broke the circle with her heel and tossed Kathleen her pelt. The selkie caught it and ran to the surf as she put it on. She leapt into the waves a seal again and disappeared into the tide.

"So," Bayonetta began with a clap of her hands, "How far is Badrick?"

"An hour's drive North, I believe," Seras remarked, hand on her chin, "I never thought I'd go back there…"

"What's in Badrick?" Pip asked as the four of them started back the way they came.

The ghost of a wistful smile appeared on Seras' lips; "That's where Alucard and I first fought Anderson. Master lost his head, I nearly died… It was something."

Seras put a hand back to her chin as she called up to Bayonetta, "So what was all that about 'Winter Court' and 'Wyldfae'?"

The Umbra Witch snorted; "Seelie and Unseelie are names the humans came up with. Fae are close to Light and Darkness, but fundamentally they're of Nature. They identify with the seasons– Seelie are Summer and closest to the Light, Unseelie are Winter and closest to the Dark. Wyldfae are purely Nature and don't align with either court unless there's a war brewing between them."

"A Dullahan who plays at being a priest," Izaya mused, folding his hands behind his head, "I'm anxious to meet a paradox like him."

Seras hated to agree with Izaya, but she couldn't help but be intrigued by Rorain as well. He was bound to be quite the character.

_To put your minds at ease, Rorain is an original character. I'm not introducing another character you should know from something you've never seen, don't worry._


	7. Crying in the Chapel

**Fandom:** Hellsing, Twilight, Durarara!, Bayonetta, and oh so much more… Basically, I don't know the meaning of the term "overly convoluted".

**Title:** Hostilities _or_ Alliances 2: Electric Boogaloo

**Rating:** T

**Pairing(s):** More than I can think to list

**Genre:** Adventure, Drama, Romance, Humor

**Warning(s):** Blood, violence, gore, sexual themes, language, OOC, OC's

**Dedicated:** Master of the Boot, my mentor in all things fanfiction who has helped me become the writer I am now.

**Summary:** It's been two years, nearly three- London is only partially rebuilt, the vampire queen She is on the loose, dens of false vampires have been popping up around the world, Germany is experiencing a werewolf epidemic, Seras and Pip are traveling the world in search of a necromancer/witch/Unseelie fae, Rip Van Winkle is sporting a fedora, and Alucard watches My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. We're in for quite a ride.

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing except for the plot and all OCs.

**Author Notes:** SO. Bayonetta 2 is out internationally. As you've realized, Bayonetta still looks like she does in Bayonetta 1. I'm kind of ignoring that game because I think the story is a piece of complete garbage. THAT SAID ON WITH THE FANFIC.

**Chapter VII **–** Crying in the Chapel**

**September 5th, Israel**

It is a fact universally acknowledged that Unstet are incredibly fast.

However, it's not a fact that's truly _understood_ until you're trying to keep pace with one.

Kya was just beginning to understand this as she trailed several paces behind Erin. The minute they'd gotten out of the basement, another harried young officer had barreled into Ariella and stammered wildly about a false vampire skulking about in Ezrat Torah. That had sent Ariella straight into an irritable fit of barking orders– there was nothing Ariella hated more than needing to go into the Orthodox neighborhoods. To quote Ariella directly, "It doesn't matter if nobody gets hurt– if they discover a vampire's hiding in their alleys and that a young lady vampire wearing _pants_ was sent in there to save them it'll be a political shit-storm and I'll be the one getting splattered".

So, to avoid such terrible weather, this operation was to be conducted quickly, quietly, and with Erin wearing a raincoat to cover her sparkling and her exposed arms. Erin seemed particularly keen on the "quickly" part of that, leaping across rooftops at a breakneck speed; true, she was at the head because her nose was tracking the false vampire, but at the speed she was going Kya wasn't sure how she could smell anything. As far as Jan had drawled while floating alongside her, this wasn't even the Unstet's top speed. The silver-haired demon frowned as she leapt along behind Erin– Even before Erin had put this distance between them, Kya couldn't tell what the Unstet was thinking. After they'd left the basement, her face had smoothed over into a neutral mask, and she'd only nodded when Ariella gave her orders.

Kya couldn't help but worry. Erin had her very own Sword of Damocles above her neck, and though she was keeping a brave face now… Kya knew if she was in Erin's place, she wouldn't even be able to do that. She feared for the vampiress– for her mind and for her heart.

It seemed Jan did as well, as the ghost had left her side perhaps once after they left the basement. He was constantly muttering to Erin, and his jokes were especially bad and especially foul– if Kya had to guess, all to get a smile, a scowl, _anything _at all out of her. He was foul-mouthed and crude, but there was no denying he cared for the vampiress. Behind that grin doubtless he was more worried than Kya could ever be.

Kya's thoughts were interrupted by Erin's outstretched arm hitting her in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her. She nearly pitched head-first over the edge of the building, but a quick smack to the forehead from the vampiress set Kya right on her feet. The demon regained her bearings, but when she turned and opened her mouth to ask why they'd stopped Erin put a finger to her lips. The Unstet gestured down at the alleyway immediately below, and Kya knelt down beside Erin to get a closer look.

She gritted her teeth at the sight– their newest false vampire had already sunk his fangs into a young man. Very little blood had dripped onto the cement. This vampire was gorging himself, not wasting a single swallow. The young man was twitching still, no longer able to scream but still perfectly capable of whimpering like a dying dog. Kya turned to Erin, mouthing "What now" to her. The vampiress paused for a moment, looking over the alleyway and the false vampire, then turned back to Kya; she motioned to the false vampire, then made a line with her finger to the mouth of the alleyway. She then pointed to herself and the alleyway's mouth.

_When the vampire goes to leave, I'll cut him off at the entrance._

She then pointed to Jan, and motioned to where the vampire was currently standing; _When he turns to run, Jan will cut off that escape route. _Erin lastly pointed to Kya, to the back of the alleyway, then mouthed the word "shadow"; _Jan will be a distraction for the vampire while you grab him with your shadow_.

Kya furrowed her eyebrows. Something seemed missing from this plan. She motioned to her neck, as if she was miming choking herself– the hand signal for "hostage".

_What about the human?_

Erin just stared at her. Kya didn't need any hand signals to understand what that meant.

The demon scowled and glanced back to the human; he didn't have _much_ time, but at least he still _had _time. If they moved now… Kya grabbed her flashlight off her belt and tossed it towards the mouth of the alley. It landed with a clatter, immediately startling the false vampire. Erin scowled back at Kya, but leapt out of sight towards the alley's entrance as the false vampire crept cautiously in the same direction. When their mark was far enough away, Jan disappeared from sight like mist blown away by the wind. Kya vaulted over the side of the roof and landed right in front of the dying human on silent feet.

With one eye on the vampire creeping ever closer to the sunlight, Kya knelt down beside the human. Thankfully and unfortunately, he was too weak to make a fuss about the odd silver-haired woman looming over him. She tore off some of his own black sleeve and tied it tight around the bloody puncture wounds on his neck; it was far from perfect, but it would have to do as she heard the telltale Hebrew swear of the vampire coming across Erin. Kya turned just in time to see the vampire wheel around, only to run into Jan materializing from thin air. The false vampire's candy red eyes looked about ready to pop out of his skull as Jan made some smart remark about the vampire most likely not having a penis.

Backed into a corner, the vampire swung at the ghost. Kya swung first– her shadow filled the darkness of the alleyway, reached out and found the vampire's feet. It clamped down on them, rooting him to the spot. She pulled the rest of the darkness out, and it wrapped tightly around the man like they were meant to mummify him. He struggled, he screamed, but she just squeezed tighter and tighter until he could no longer move. Erin walked brusquely up and hoisted the man in his new cocoon of shadow over her shoulders. Jan grinned wide and put his hand up for a hi-five Erin left hanging.

"You get him back to Staff Sergeant Cohen," Kya stated as she picked up the young man, "I need to get this man to a hospital before he bleeds out completely." Kya turned to Erin– she was already gone, Jan and their prisoner with her. She'd probably gone before Kya had even finished speaking. The demon shook her head, pushing her worry for Erin away so she could properly worry for the human in her arms.

Getting the young man into a hospital before he died and out before anyone could ask her any questions was the most difficult part of Kya's detour. Getting back to their base from anywhere in the city was easier than breathing, she'd done it so many times. Kya was never greeted with salutes when she returned to the base, not like Ariella. But then again, Ariella actually held a true military rank. Kya just had the vague title of "Officer" to make it sound like she belonged there. That wasn't what made coming back to the base not feel as sweet as it should.

No, it wasn't that she wasn't saluted. It was that she was ignored entirely. As Kya made her way down to the interrogation chamber (because doubtless Ariella would want to start beating the information out of their prisoner immediately), the other Cherev officers didn't even look her way. Some of them didn't even move out of her way as she walked towards them, forcing her to weave between them like water around rocks in a stream. She'd gotten looks and whispers when Cherev had first taken her in, and at the time she had hated that. But now she realized that being the topic of gossip was much better than being the redheaded stepchild nobody wanted to acknowledge.

Kya slipped into the observation room, and through the one-way mirror could see that the interrogation was already in full swing. Ariella was shouting at the false vampire, who could only twitch and fidget under the onslaught. In the corner of the room, Jan was floating in a cross-legged sitting position, eyebrows almost meeting with his hat as he watched the scene unfold. Erin was nowhere to be found.

"Jesus _fuck_," the ghost remarked, "And I thought _my _boss could yell."

Kya spared a small smile before asking, "Where's Officer Sorrel?"

Jan shrugged; "She said she didn't give a fuck about the details. She's waiting for whatever your boss is gonna make us do next, I 'unno where though."

Kya shook her head with a soft sigh. She kept her eyes focused on the false vampire as he fearfully blurted out what Ariella wanted to hear. Calling him a vampire at this stage was just a technicality– his eyes had faded from their bright candy red back to brown, and even with a wall between them she could smell the man's humanity. She could also smell the stench of the blood around his mouth. She couldn't keep the scowl off her face. Someone who would _chose _to be a creature of darkness, who would _chose _to be a predator and murderer… Oh, if _only_ they didn't need his information.

The door to the observation room opened, and Ariella stepped in. She nodded once in acknowledgement of them both, then began, "As I expected from a street-level thug like him, he didn't know much. But now we know at least how the false vampires are created." The staff sergeant held up a plastic evidence bag. Inside it was a hypodermic needle filled with a deep, dark red liquid.

Jan raised an eyebrow; "So the dude's a junkie."

Ariella scowled at the ghost; "You haven't been paying very close attention, have you? This syringe is filled with the same liquid we've been finding on the false vampires. What turns them is this substance. They inject it, they turn, and in five to seven hours unless they shoot up again they turn back. This convenience sacrifices durability and stamina– hence why all the ones we've chased down die running for their lives."

Jan folded his arms over his chest; "Sounds like someone out there wants to mass-produce vampires."

Ariella nodded; "That seems the most likely reason this drug exists."

Kya frowned, putting a hand to her mouth; "Did he know who's making this drug?"

Ariella shook her head; "No. It's getting distributed like any other drug– He gets it from a dealer, and the dealer doesn't let street-level junkies know who his supplier is. On the upside, though, we _do _have the location of his dealer."

Kya shook her head; "I don't like this. With a system like that we'll easily be running around in circles for weeks before we get anywhere."

"Neither do I," Ariella sighed, "But we don't have anything else to go on. Breaking down this substance is taking far longer than we anticipated, and with a system this disorganized traditional investigation would take even longer. This is what we've got."

The demon bit the inside of her lower lip; the last people to produce vampires on a large scale were Millennium. This didn't bode well.

**September 5th, Northern Ireland**

Seras shuddered on reflex as their car (an SUV Bayonetta had "borrowed" from the Dublin airport's parking lot) came to a gentle stop. Badrick was a little town– little enough that some of the people they'd met actually remembered seeing Seras come to Badrick– and asking around for Rorain had gone quickly. The church they were lead to was a little thing nestled on top of a hill on the edge of a forest, barely larger than a supply shed with only the cross on the roof letting the world know what it was. By all rights it was a perfectly harmless little place.

But the church outside of Cheddar had been much the same.

Seras shook off the memories, hopped out of the car and jogged slightly to catch up to Bayonetta. She had to keep jogging even as she caught up; the woman's long legs made sure they'd never really keep pace with each other. The draculina couldn't help a wistful smile as her thoughts drifted to trying to keep pace with Alucard. Much as she wanted to be as prepared as possible to fight She, the draculina was a bit glad for the Integra's ultimatum. It had been too long since she was home.

When they reached the doors of the church, Bayonetta raised her hand to knock, but the instant before her knuckles hit the door it swung inwards. Bayonetta nearly hit a man about Seras' height with curly red hair and wire-rimmed glasses in the forehead. As the witch caught herself and cleared her throat, Seras looked over the man in more detail. His face was covered in a light dusting of freckles and his eyes a bright green. The man was dressed in all the trappings of a priest and smiling serenely; Seras had to blink in surprise. She had a hard time believing _this _man could be the Dullahan they're looking for. After all, his head seemed quite connected to his neck.

But that starched collar could be hiding a seam, for all she knew.

The man chuckled softly and said in a lilting Irish brogue, "Well, aren't you quite the menagerie. I might as well invite you in, but I'd advise the vampire stay outside for her own health."

Bayonetta arched a brow, but her smirk didn't fall; "You already know who we are, I see. Then you should know we know who _you_ are, Father Rorain Maloney."

Rorain nodded as he turned and walked back into the church. The party filed into the church behind him, but the moment Seras stepped over the threshold she felt her stomach lurch and nearly collapsed onto Pip. She covered her mouth and grabbed the doorframe, trying her damnedest not to vomit as her head spun. Rorain winced and walked back over to her, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"First time you've been on holy ground since your turning?" he asked in a soft voice.

Seras shook her head; "I-I've been in churches before this and this– this hasn't–"

Rorain smiled and patted her shoulder; "The cross on the roof doesn't make it Holy, Miss. It's the faith of those who attend, and the one who runs it…" He took his hand off her shoulder and placed both of his hands on either side of his head. In one deft motion, he plucked his head off of his neck. Seras nearly fell forwards again as pure black smoke rose from his neck, and a with soft shimmer Rorain's green eyes turned to a bright gold with reptilian pupils.

With smoke curling in lazy corkscrews up to the ceiling and his head under his arm, Rorain continued, "Even if the man running it might not be what you expect."

"Zo zis isn't just a cover? You really believe?" Pip wondered as he sat down in a pew.

Rorain's neck twitched slightly forward– a nod, Seras realized; "I do. I suppose that's one reason among many I never mixed with my fellow creatures of darkness, hm?"

Bayonetta smirked and shot a quick glance over at Seras; "Alucard's going to laugh himself to tears when he hears about you."

Rorain's smiled faltered; "Ah. I suppose I should ask what you want. Word travels quick among fae, but not so quick that I really know _why _you've come here. All I've gotten is the excited tittering of Little Folk, telling me a witch, a warlock, a vampire and a man with the crest of Hellsing have come for me."

Pip nodded; "Well, since Seras looks like she's going to throw up, I'll explain. We need your 'elp with disconnecting a ghost and the person who zummoned 'im."

"That must be much harder than it sounds if you're looking for _three_ creatures of darkness to do the job," the Dullahan mused, eyes drifting over to Bayonetta and Izaya.

"Yes," Seras said as she moved to stand just outside the door, "The vampire who summoned him is… incredibly powerful–"

"She," Rorain said, biting his lip as an agitated spurt of smoke came from his neck.

Izaya smirked, eyes slitted in a knowing look; "Word truly _does _travel fast."

Rorain snorted; "Her return has been all the Little Folk can talk about, as has the Zeppelin Incident."

The priest paused, and a soft frown crossed his face; "I'm not certain I can help you. While I've no doubt Hellsing's cause is a worthy one, I don't want to abandon my flock here."

Seras opened her mouth, but immediately stopped as the hair on the back of her neck stood up and the wind immediately picked up speed. Her eyes flickered up to the sky– black storm clouds were rushing in, already rumbling with the promise of lightning. Slowly, Seras turned to look over her shoulder. A large black horse, easily the size of a Clydesdale stood at the bottom of the hill. The horse looked like the silhouette of a horse, pure black with a smoke-like mane blowing wildly in the wind and two pure gold eyes glowing softly against the darkness.

Two figures sat on the horse's back. The first held her head under her arm and smoke rose from her neck in an excited jetstream– a Dullahan woman dressed entirely in black leather (leather jacket, pants, boots, everything). Her hair was long, curly, and red; her eyes also burned gold, and a grin stretched her face nearly to its breaking point. Gripping her waist was an almost impossibly beautiful man. His white hair was pulled back in a tail and his eyes were a cold blue with the same reptilian pupils as all the creatures of darkness she'd seen. He was dressed simply, in black and a dark blue longcoat with a saber on his hip.

Seras whispered back over her shoulder; "Guys, do you remember the fae Kathleen warned us about? Well… I think they're here."

Bayonetta, Pip and Izaya frowned and looked to each other, but Rorain's face smoothed over. He strode forward, gently pushing past Seras and stopping just outside the church to stare the other fae down.

The Dullahan sneered at the display, crowing, "Let me guess, gonna give yourself up to save your flock, O Noble Shepherd?"

Rorain narrowed his eyes; "I won't let you hurt the people of Badrick, no matter what it takes."

The Sidhe laughed, the sound rich and smooth, before responding in (to Seras' surprise) a Received Pronunciation English accent, "You had your chance to return to the fold, Rorain Maloney. But we're no longer here for you, or your constituents– The Nightwalker offered us a reward for the heads of your new companions. They're the only quarry here worth hunting."

The Sidhe reached into his coat and pulled out a horn; all Seras could gather was that it was made of bone and covered in traditional Celtic animal interlace designs before the Sidhe brought it up to his mouth and blew. The horn's call ripped through the air and roared above the thunder, a sound like an air raid siren that Seras could feel deep in the soles of her feet and rattled her bones.

Rorain's eyes went wide and he grabbed Seras' arm as he shouted, "Everyone into the forest! _Now!_" Before Seras could protest, Rorain was dragging her along behind her as he raced into the trees, Bayonetta hot on his tail with Pip and Izaya in tow. Seras heard the Dullahan cackle and the horse whinny– but the noise was harsh and piercing, like the scream of a child.

Pip nearly fell on his face as he wrenched out of Bayonetta's grip and tried to run at the same time; "What are we running from?!"

"That's a Horn of the Erlkoenig," Bayonetta snapped as she sprinted ahead of everyone, "It tricks lesser faeries into thinking the Wild Hunt is on– and that _we're _the quarry!"

"That means Shannon and Cadfael just sent every cu sith, hob, brownie and cait sith after us with the intent to rip us apart," Rorain added hurriedly. "And there are a _lot _of faeries in these parts."

"Shannon's the Dullahan and Cadfael's the Sidhe, I'm assuming," Izaya muttered to himself.

"Then why are we running _into_ the woods?!" Seras yelped, leaping over a root.

"We need to get distance so we can actually form a plan of attack," Bayonetta replied as she ducked under a low branch, "And get our hands on some cold iron, too!"

Seras' hand flew up to her shadow eye, the only thought on her mind _iron_. With a flash of the Hellsing seal, a box of iron nails fell into her hand. She gritted her teeth and looked behind her– her eyes went wide. Humanoid creatures the size of spider monkeys covered in brown fur with pointed ears and bushy tails were running towards them en masse, mouths foaming and eyes flaming. More and more came scurrying out of the trees, screeching and squalling as they chased after the group. Their front line got so close that their little claws nearly cut Izaya's ankle.

"What ze 'ell are zose!?" Pip shouted.

"Brownies," Rorain shouted back– just then, he caught sight of Seras' box of nails, "A nail for each should be enough iron to take out their vanguard!"

Seras bit her lip, then turned on her heel and threw a handful of nails up into the air and raised a hand to her shadow eye. As the nails fell, the Hellsing seal appeared and caught the nails, spinning them to point spike first at the brownies. She clenched her hand into a fist and the nails went flying, each one finding a brownie. They skewered the little creatures through the eyes, the stomachs, the hearts. Their blood caught aflame, and with screeches of agony the creatures burned. Seras winced, but ran backwards and tossed up another handful of nails. She shot volley after volley of nails, skewering wave after wave of brownies until their front line was several yards back.

She raced to catch up to the others, shouting as she did, "I've only got one nail left!"

Rorain bit his lip, then sliced at the air ahead with his free hand. A sliver of shadow followed the path of his hand, then split open into a portal. Rorain threw his head through first before jumping in after it. Bayonetta dove through after him, Izaya after her, and Seras tumbled through last, pulling Pip along with her. The portal closed behind her, and the draculina shook her head once to clear it before looking up. She only saw more forest.

"Where are we?" Seras asked.

"Several yards ahead of where we were," Rorain replied as he quickly retrieved his head, "It should buy us some time–"

"Everyone hit the deck!" Izaya screamed. The five of them dove out of the way as a whinny pierced the air and hooves beat the ground. A white blur screamed past them, right through where they'd landed. The beast turned on its hind legs the minute it realized it missed to face the five. The horse was tall but slender, with a long skinny tail similar to a lion's and a long singular horn coming out of its forehead.

Pip was the first to comment; "Unicorns are faeries?!"

"Well considering those little furry _things _were faeries too I think the label is a lot more forgiving than we think," Bayonetta snapped.

"You'd better use that nail wisely," Rorain said, turning to Seras with worried eyes, "Unicorns are aggressive– they don't give up on prey once they've caught sight of it."

Seras nodded and weighed her options. With all the trees so tightly packed together, she could get the unicorn's attention and get it stuck weaving through them. But to get its attention, she'd need to get right in the line of fire… Screw it. If it went wrong, she could take a horn through the stomach. The draculina stepped right into the unicorn's path, feet apart in a strong stance as she stared the beast down. The unicorn snorted, stomped the ground, and raced forward horn primed to skewer. Seras stood her ground– _It's a game of chicken, and I _need _to win. _She stood firm as it charged closer, closer, _closer_–

And when the point of its horn was nearly at her stomach, the beast ground to a halt. Everyone stared, eyes wide and jaws on the dirt floor. The unicorn raised its head, stared at Seras for a moment, then leaned forward and sniffed her. After a moment of sniffing, the beast nuzzled her with a soft nicker.

After a moment, Seras uttered, "W… what?"

Pip burst out laughing; "I get it, oh my _God–_"

"What? You get what?!" Seras wondered as she tried to push the unicorn away.

Through a chuckle, Bayonetta replied, "Unicorns are fond of pure maidens. Are you a virgin, Little Bat?"

Seras scowled as Pip nearly fell on his ass laughing, but Rorain smiled and exclaimed, "This is perfect!"

Izaya raised an eyebrow; "I fail to see how."

"Whoever's at the front of the hunt is the leader," Rorain explained, "And this unicorn is at the front. If Seras rides it back towards the hunt, maybe we can turn it to us! And she'll be on the right footing to face Shannon and Cadfael– they _are _riding a Puca, after all."

Seras grinned; "We've finally got a plan, hm? Alright, I'm in!" Without delay, Seras tossed her last nail to Pip and leapt onto the unicorn's back. She raised her hand to her shadow eye, and remembered to think specific this time– this time of rubble in London. The Hellsing seal glowed bright, and into her arms it dropped four pieces of iron rebar. She tossed three to Pip, Bayonetta and Izaya, then turned to Rorain.

She winced and asked, "Will you be alright without…?"

Rorain smiled; "Don't worry, child. I've got all I need with me." With that, Rorain reached into the inky black stump of his neck and pulled out a sword of shadow. Seras nodded, and brandished her piece of rebar like a sword of her own.

"Charge!" Seras shouted, kicking the unicorn to spur the beast forward. The unicorn let out a loud whinny and galloped forward, nearly leaving her companions in the dust. The trees were a blur– the unicorn moved almost as fast as she could. Seras almost missed it when the unicorn met the front line of the wild hunt– the brownies and other little folk were easily trampled under the magical beast's hooves. From ahead, Seras could see a dog-shaped faerie charging straight at her. The thing was similar to the Puca– all black with blazing gold eyes. With a howl, it leapt towards her mount, jaws primed to chomp onto its leg.

Seras was faster, spurring the unicorn to double its speed and shoving her rebar sword straight through the Black Dog's waiting jaws. The faerie let out a canine whine of agony as it burned, but Seras couldn't spare time to feel sorry for it. She looked over her shoulder just in time to see Pip smash his rebar into the skull of a cait sith leaping straight for him. Izaya was just behind him, batting away Brownies with his rebar with impeccable swordsmanship. Rorain kept up the rear, his sword of shadow cutting little winged humanoids– pixies, she bet– out of the air. Bayonetta was almost running even with the unicorn, her rebar in one hand as she instead fired her pistol into the crowd of faeries with her other hand to make them scatter. Whatever faeries weren't falling to their onslaught were instead falling in line behind them, running behind the new leaders of the hunt.

Seras grinned and turned back to the path ahead, steering the unicorn out of the trees and back towards the church. She broke through the treeline and went galloping down the hill straight towards the three faeries who started this fight. Shannon's eyes widened in shock, and she shouted something in Irish before steering the Puca into a dead charge straight toward Seras. Cadfael narrowed his eyes and drew his saber– Seras let out a hiss as the acrid stench of silver hit her nose.

The draculina let out a shrill battle cry and kept charging down the hill– _It's a game of chicken, and I'm _going _to _win.

The two beasts screamed towards each other, closer, closer, _closer_– a whistle in the air. Something soared past Seras' head. A piece of rebar. The iron spear punched right through Shannon's head, knocking it out of her arm and her off of the Puca. As Cadfael tried desperately to regain control of his mount, Seras looked over her shoulder just in time to see Bayonetta fist pump in triumph. She grinned, then brought the unicorn back to circle around Cadfael and the Puca. The Sidhe's eyes smoldered and he spurred the shadowy beast to match Seras' circling, the two of them tracking each other like they were about to duel.

They both brandished their "blades", turned to face each other, and charged forward. Cadfael swung to lop Seras' head off, and she ducked beneath the blade. With both hands she stabbed her rebar into the Puca's side. The beast let out its high, grating cry and fell onto its side. The sidhe leapt off of the faerie and shouted a word in Irish. Ice spread across the ground at breakneck speeds and caught up to the unicorn, freezing its front legs to the spot. With a sickening crack, the unicorn fell forwards onto its face, the momentum throwing Seras off of her mount. She went flying, bouncing when she landed and rolling yards away from the battle.

Seras winced, her head spinning and her stomach lurching from the landing. She pushed herself to her knees just as Cadfael shouted another word. Ice appeared at her knees and covered her legs, rooting her to the spot. Seras let out a cry and tried her hardest to wrench her legs out of the ice, but the ice turned black and hard– she couldn't break it no matter what she did. Cadfael stalked towards her, a grin twisting his inhumanly handsome features. Seras' hand flew up to her shadow eye and she clenched her fist. Nothing happened. She gasped before swearing under her breath– she'd used it too many times in a row. Even magic like this had to have its limit, and she'd met it.

But the moment she started to panic, the draculina noticed Rorain over Cadfael's shoulder with his head in one hand, preparing to– _no_, he wouldn't! It was stupid, he'd be a fool to do it!

Rorain let out a cry and threw his head as hard as he could. It hit the Sidhe in the back, knocking the wind out of the fae and sending him crashing onto his face. Seras gaped– Rorain was a fool, incredibly brave, or both. He ran and collected his head just in the nick of time, barely missing the point of Cadfael's blade coming down to stab it through the eye. The Dullahan priest leapt backwards and brandished his shadow sword, his head safely under his arm. The sidhe let out a growl, turned on his heel and tore across the grass. Rorain parried the silver blade with his dark one; the priest never struck, only defending and parrying.

"Tell me," Rorain shouted above the noise of the swords clashing, "Why take an offer from She? Why give up on killing me to make some vampire happy?"

Cadfael dodged Rorain's riposte and sneered, "Don't be stupid, Maloney. The Nightwalker's war will trample anything in her way. Showing a changeling his place is pointless in the face of that."

Seras furrowed her eyebrows, but before she could ponder that she heard a sound from the trees. She turned to the source and saw Pip barreling out of the forest, his momentum nearly sending him rolling down the hill. His rebar was gone, but one fist was clenched tight and his teeth gritted in determination. As Cadfael focused on his duel with Rorain, Pip made a beeline for the sidhe. Seras furrowed her brow– what the Hell was he planning?!

Pip let out a sharp whistle when he was close enough and shouted, "Over 'ere, _connasse!_"

Cadfael turned just in time for Pip to punch him straight in the eye. The eye erupted into flames, and Cadfael let out an almost feline yowl of pain. Pip pulled back, and Seras' eyes widened– sticking out of the Sidhe's burning eyeball was a single iron nail. Her final nail.

Izaya broke through the treeline and wasted no time tossing his rebar to Pip. The mercenary caught it expertly and drove it through the sidhe's throat. Fire engulfed the fae, lighting up the stormy night.

As Cadfael burned down to ashes, the ice around Seras' legs melted, leaving the draculina cold and damp, but free. She stood and jogged to join the others while they all caught their breath.

Bayonetta caught up with them at the same time, smirking over at Pip; "My my, that was some quick thinking, Captain."

Pip shrugged with a grin; "What can I say? I'm getting ze 'ang of fighting monsters." Seras smiled, but it fell as she turned to Rorain, who was putting his head back on his neck.

"The Sidhe called you a 'changeling'," she said, "Is that… the same as it is in stories?"

Rorain paused, and with a tight smile he replied, "Yes. As an infant I was glamoured, my head sealed on my neck, and I replaced some poor human child. But even I didn't know I wasn't human. Not until…" the priest stopped, staring ahead with soft eyes and a soft frown.

He shook his head; "It doesn't matter," he smiled over at Seras, "What matters is that you've all shown me your hearts here today. I will worry about my flock, but I'd worry more if brave people like you were left to fight the darkness alone."

The Dullahan bowed low; "I would be honored to serve with you against She."

Seras couldn't stop herself from beaming as she chirped, "O-oh! Thank you!"

She grinned over her shoulder at the others; "Well, that's everyone! Come on, guys, England's waiting!"

**September 6th, Germany**

Kallenna chewed on her bottom lip, brows furrowed as she watched from her perch atop a mossy rock. They had arrived in Dresden early that morning, and retreated deep into the forest on foot. By the time they'd reached Grishild's pack, the sun was setting. Now, the young regenerator watched the werewolves from a safe distance. The pack was indeed small– she counted perhaps only thirty wolves, pups included. Almost all of them were padding about the clearing as wolves; Grishild and Sifridus had turned the moment they went into the forest. They were only slightly larger than normal wolves, and beyond the colors of their fur Kallenna wasn't sure she'd be able to tell them apart from their animal cousins. The few still human were dressed very simply, essentially wearing ponchos made of of animal skin. It made sense– anything less and they'd be cold, anything more and turning in a hurry would be a hassle.

The warrior frowned, a crease forming between her eyebrows. An auburn and a black juvenile were wrestling in wolf form, playfully barking and nipping at each other. She looked further– a woman in her human form with long dark hair was sitting with a grey adult's head resting in her lap, speaking softly to them while stroking their ears. Sifridus was playing with one of the few pups, the little brown thing trying to catch his yellow tail in its jaws.

Just as she let out a sigh, Kallenna heard heavy footsteps behind her; she turned to see Hans stop behind her, his one visible eye peering almost through her. Kallenna stood up– if only so she wouldn't have to crane her neck so far. These supernatural champions _really_ needed to stop being so unreasonably tall.

His voice flowed into her mind; "_You seem troubled_."

"That obvious," Kallenna breathed, glancing over at the werewolves. "I just didn't expect them to be so… normal, I guess."

"_And why wouldn't they be?_" Hans wondered, cocking his head slightly to the side. Kallenna couldn't push back a tiny smirk. Even the Captain couldn't hide those little beastly quirks.

The girl sighed again; "I don't know."

Hans' eye drifted to the pack; "_They weren't born human and given this power. They were born like this, and are content to live this way. For as many of them abuse their power, twice as many just want to survive._"

The young woman stared just past the treetops, watching as the dark velvet curtain of night fell over the forest. There were too many questions to ask, too many things she wanted to consider, and far too many of them frightened her. Too many of them would change everything.

Instead, she wondered, "Why aren't you in wolf form too?"

"_There's no need for it_," Hans replied, "_And… I suppose I've gotten too comfortable passing for human._"

Kallenna grinned up at the werewolf with a soft chuckle; "Trust me, Captain– you could _never_ pass for human." The werewolf's eye narrowed, but Kallenna could tell there was a smile behind the collar of his greatcoat.

Just then, Grishild loped up to the rock and sat at its base, orange eyes focused on Hans. They shared a look, then Hans turned to Kallenna and said, "_A hunting party is going out to find boar. The Alpha wants you and Heinkel to go with them in case of an emergency._"

Kallenna furrowed her eyebrows and asked, "Just me and Heinkel? You're sure we'd be enough?"

Hans' eyes flickered back to Grishild as his thought flowed to her; "_The Alpha says I'm too strong to keep away from the pups. Also…_" Grishild turned to look at Rip Van Winkle– the songstress singing to two pups in her lap– and Hans' eyes followed hers, "_She thinks Rip would draw too much attention._"

Kallenna nodded, hopping off the rock and crossing the distance to Heinkel– the woman in question in the middle of leaning on a tree and ignoring some curious juveniles sniffing her feet. Heinkel nodded to her, pushing off the tree and meeting her halfway.

Heinkel sneered slightly and asked, "Zo did ze head dog give us marchink orders?"

Kallenna frowned; "You know, they _can_ understand you. It's probably not wise to call the Alpha Wolf a dog in front of the whole pack." Heinkel just shrugged, but the younger woman kept on scowling.

"Grishild wants you and me to accompany a hunting party in case we're ambushed by She's werewolves," Kallenna reported. "We're leaving shortly."

After a quick check of their weapons, Kallenna and Heinkel met up with the hunting party– a scant four wolves– and set off. The moon was high in the sky, but the pale light could barely penetrate the thick forest canopy. The fog was thick and reached up to the two soldiers' knees. The tips of the wolves' ears just barely poked through the mist. Kallenna couldn't help but hold her breath as she wove through the tall, skinny trees. The magic used to make her a regenerator had slightly improved her senses, but only slightly. She had to keep an eye on the wolves to stay on course. Heinkel hovered close to her side– getting separated was the last thing the Iscariot operatives wanted.

They walked in silence for a long ways, the werewolves stopping every few moments to sniff the air and adjust their course. Kallenna kept her eyes on their flanks and Heinkel focused on the rear, peering over her dark glasses. The regenerator couldn't suppress a shiver, but not from the night's chill. These woods were full of a stillness and a building anxiety. Despite the emptiness, she felt her hand drifting to the hilt of her sword.

All the wolves stopped. Kallenna ground to an immediate halt, grabbing Heinkel by the shoulder to stop her as well. She watched the hunting party carefully. They all stood alert, the ears and eyes of each focused in a different direction with just as much intent. After a moment, every single set of ears went flat and turned down to the side. The wolves crouched low and growled from deep in their chests as their tails tucked between their legs.

Heinkel gritted her teeth and hissed, "I'll take left flank, you take right. Ve're not alone out here."

Kallenna nodded and darted to the party's left flank, drawing her blade and facing the trees. From the depths of the forest echoed howls, reedy and scratching and cutting through the stillness of the night. Mingling with the howling was a different noise, one she'd never heard before– it sounded like the laughing of hyenas, but breathless and cracked, clawing its way out of somewhere deep and dark. She dug her heels into the dirt and tightened her grip on her saber.

She looked over her shoulder and whispered, "Whatever we face, we need to hold them here. We can't let whatever's out here get back to the pack." The wolves let out soft whines, and Kallenna couldn't keep her eyes from softening. They were hunters, but they certainly weren't warriors. Kallenna looked back to the trees as several misshapen shadows came skulking through the mist. They were top-heavy, with _long _skinny limbs and thick shoulders, and their broken laughter just got louder and louder as they advanced. Her eyes shot open wide; the closer the shadows came, the more she saw darting about in the trees. She counted two coming towards her, but three more lurking yards away.

The creatures stepped into view.

Suddenly Kallenna could vividly remember her first real mission in the field, and her first vampire. She tasted the fear on the back of her tongue, burning like vinegar at the otherness, how close it came to the familiar and how incredibly short it fell. Because the _things _she saw before her were _nothing _like any werewolves she'd ever seen.

They had canine skulls, but their pointed ears were on the sides of their heads and their lips twisted out of shape into human grins. They only had hair in the places humans had it, which made it much more apparent that these creatures were _quite _naked. Their skeleton looked like it had been stretched, bent, pulled and twisted beneath the skin into these hulking, hunched shapes with paw-like feet on digitigrade legs. Their muscle got leaner as they went down the body, and their clawed hands were large enough to engulf Kallenna's entire head. Their eyes glowed against the moonlight, cutting straight to the part of Kallenna that feared the dark.

The creature closest to Kallenna, a female with a shock of hair dyed a fading purple, let out a choking laugh; "Welcome to our forest, little girls!"

The regenerator let out a roar and lunged, sword flashing in a shaft of moonlight as she sliced for the pseudo-werewolf's head. Heinkel's guns fired to life and a chorus of sharp howls and crowing laughs sounded through the forest. The pseudo-wolf ducked out of the way, faking right before swinging a massive paw straight at Kallenna's head. Kallenna rolled behind a tree– the blow from the wolf hit the trunk and snapped the tree in half. Kallenna's eyes widened and she leapt out of the way of the falling trunk, landing a scant foot away.

A member of the hunting party wasn't so lucky, nor so quick. The trunk landed right on the center of the chestnut-colored wolf's spine with a _snap _and a piercing yelp from the wolf. Kallenna swiftly pivoted back around, but another of the wolfmen lunged from the shadows and sunk his jaws into the wolf's neck. With a powerful yank, he tore the wolf's head from its body. The regenerator could only stare, jaw in the dirt. The wolfman took advantage of that, snapping to face her and swinging a massive paw for Kallenna's face. She dodged just quickly enough to avoid her head being taken off her shoulders, but not fast enough to not get sliced across the face by the wolf's claws. With a sizzle and a stinging sensation, the cuts began mending themselves on the double.

The wolfman took a moment to gape at Kallenna's healing– that moment cost him. Another of the werewolves leapt out from around a tree, the black-furred beast landing on the wolfman's back and biting into his shoulder. The pseudo-wolf let out a yowl of pain and swatted at it, but the werewolf hung on, snarling all the way. Kallenna saw her chance and seized it. The regenerator rushed forward and stabbed her sword into the distracted wolfman's hip. She pushed as far as she could go, then sliced up and to the left. Her silver blade left a deep scar of fire along the pseudo-werewolf's torso before it fell into two neat pieces.

The true werewolf immediately let go of the dead wolfman, dropped to the ground and sprinted over to the other side of the battlefield. They ran right into the line of sight of a blonde female wolfman, barking loudly and darting around in a zigzag to draw her attention. She swung at him with her massive paws, and he kept jumping out of her range. Just as she brought her hand up for a third swing, her face exploded in a huge, disgusting, flaming exit wound. She slumped to the ground, revealing Heinkel and her smoking gun.

Kallenna's smirk at the victory was short lived as she heard another _crack _and a sharp whine cut short. She whipped around to see the purple-haired wolfman with a strawberry-blonde werewolf in her jaws; with a grin, the wolfman squeezed her jaws tighter and tighter until the werewolf's neck collapsed into a bloody mess, its head and body falling in separate heaps. Kallenna doubled back, Heinkell meeting her back-to-back. The black werewolf and a platinum blond werewolf– the last members of the hunting party– fell in beside them, growling and snarling at the advancing wolfmen with their tails still firmly between their legs.

The young warrior took a sharp breath in– the wolfmen she'd seen in the distance were closing in, and _fast_. She did a quick pivot around– there were ten of the misshapen creatures closing in on them. With the darkness, the fog, and the wolfmen's tight formation, she couldn't see if more were waiting in the wings. Heinkel had just ejected her clips. Kallenna's breath was coming fast and shallow now– two humans, one normal and one whose regenerating abilities only went so far. Two werewolves, scared out of their minds and who had never fought anything more dangerous than a particularly territorial wild boar. Ten or more freaks of science who were grinning and salivating with the thought of tearing the four of them apart. And they were surrounded in the dark, with an area of about ten feet to move freely.

There were no tactics to make this survivable.

Kallenna took a deep breath, then swung hard– the blood on her sword splattered in an arc at the wolfman line's feet; "Come on then! Show us what you're made of!"

The wolfmen leapt. Kallenna thrust her blade forward, stabbing for a wolfman's stomach. Heinkel reloaded, aimed her pistols, and opened fire. The werewolves sprinted for the wolfman line.

Metal sung through the air, and blades pierced the backs of five wolfmen straight through their stomachs. The wolfmen crumpled to the ground, and the others stopped their charge dead in its tracks to look around wildly, eyes wide and ears flat. Kallenna and Heinkel looked to the dead wolfmen. The blades weren't just blades.

They were bayonets.

Kallenna and Heinkel grinned at each other just as two flashing blades sliced through a wolfman like paper, cutting an 'x' across its torso. As the creature fell into four flaming pieces, the other wolfmen charged straight past it and into empty darkness.

The purple-haired wolfman turned to Kallenna, eyes blazing; "What is this!? What have you done?!"

Kallenna just sneered, turning her nose up at the pseudo-wolf; "I didn't do a damn thing. This is Divine Providence."

The wolfman began to scream, but another bayonet flew from the darkness and lodged itself in the creature's throat. The remaining three wolfmen charged the four, and three bullets from Heinkel took one of them down in seconds. Using Heinkel's gunfire and the flames from the dying wolfman, Kallenna charged the last remaining male. She ducked under his paws and thrust her saber straight through his chest, cutting a clean line down through his groin. Then there was one. For a second, the female looked around wildly while letting out high-pitched whines that made the two true werewolves wince in pain. Then, she let out a desperate howl and charged Kallenna.

With a roar, he finally leapt from the shadows. The massive man soared right over Kallenna, Heinkel and the wolves, his feet landing square in the middle of the wolfman's chest and knocking the breath right out of her. The wolfman landed hard on the ground, and with his grey coat fluttering and glasses flashing he brandished two bayonets above the prone wolfman's throat.

"Wait!" she screeched, a breathless and grating sound that even made the paladin grimace, scrabbling at the man's legs. "I surrender! S-spare me! Have mercy!"

He snorted, and in a thick Scottish brogue he growled, "God has mercy. I don't."

With that, the paladin plunged his blades into the wolfman's eyes. She screamed, loud and primal as her blood caught fire. He stabbed her one more time in the throat and sliced upwards, cleaving her head in twain. He stood to his full height, and grinned over his shoulder at the women.

"About time you got here," Anderson said, "I was getting sick of hunting alone."

_I've been waiting to introduce Anderson for so long and even though everything is way better in your head than it is when it comes out of your hands, I feel like this sort of lived up to what I hoped it would be. Also I'm not going to phonetically type out his Scottish accent like I did last time because that was one of the worst ideas I have _ever _had. And if you've followed my work from the beginning you know I've had some _bad _ideas._


	8. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

**Category:** Hellsing, Twilight, Durarara!, Bayonetta, and elements from many more places tossed in. Basically I don't know the meaning of the term "overly convoluted".

**Title:** Hostilities _or_ Alliances 2: Electric Boogaloo

**Rating:** T

**Pairing(s):** More than I can think to list

**Genre:** Adventure, Drama, Romance, Humor

**Warning(s):** Blood, violence, gore, sexual themes, language, OOC, OC's

**Dedicated:** Master of the Boot, my mentor in all things fanfiction who has helped me become the writer I am now.

**Summary:** The Zeppelin Incident is two years dead but another war is on the world's doorstep. Hellsing and Iscariot must defend themselves once more, ready or not. Here there be monsters.

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing except for the plot and all OCs.

**Author Notes: **I think I had the most trouble I've ever had trying to just come up with what exactly needed to happen plot-wise in this chapter. Mostly because I needed to finally lay down in my head the general idea of how long I want this story to be, figure out where this fit within that, and also work with the timetable I'd set up in-story as to how quickly and how slowly things can realistically happen. The only relevant point of that to you guys is that around chapter ten I _plan _on us hitting this story's general halfway point. It will be a bit easier to bring everything back together into a central point now that I'm bringing a good handful of the characters back to England.

**Chapter VIII **–** Smoke Gets In Your Eyes**

**September 6th, Germany**

Alexander Anderson's piercing green eyes zeroed in on the two werewolves huddling at his protege's feet; "Ah. I missed a spot," he commented. Two more bayonets slid out of his sleeves and into his waiting hands. The werewolves' ears flattened again and they let out piercing whines, eyes locked on the blades pointing their way.

Kallenna's eyes went wide and her hands flew up in a warding gesture; "Wait! Wait wait wait wait _wait_. A-Alex, these guys are with us."

The paladin frowned; "_What?_"

Kallenna took a deep breath, then explained, "Alright, so– these guys _have _been attacking humans but _but _they're only doing it because _these _guys you just killed have been killing _them _and they don't have enough wolves to hunt animals! We made an agreement with them– we work together to take out these wolfmen, they stop hunting humans."

"And we're actually trusting the word of _dogs_," Anderson growled, eyes still locked on the wolves.

"I zought it was a bad idea too," Heinkel cut in. Kallenna shot a quick glare over her shoulder at the gunslinger.

The younger regenerator let out a sigh and replied, "_Yes_, Sir Hellsing and Maxwell decided to trust their word. But they _did_ give us vital information– they linked these guys back to She. If we find the source of these wolfmen and take them all out, we can strike a blow against Her. We're holding up our end of this, and if they don't hold up theirs I'm sure Maxwell and Sir Hellsing will tell you and Alucard to carve a bloody swathe across Europe. That's the deal."

For a loaded moment, Anderson just stared past Kallenna at the werewolves, brows furrowed and frown deep. The werewolves stared back, fearful enough that you could see the whites of their eyes. Kallenna held her breath.

Anderson let out a deep sigh, his bayonets sliding back up his sleeves; "This can stand, for the moment. I'll have words with Maxwell when this is over, however."

Kallenna exhaled, feeling almost every muscle in her body relax; "Good enough, Alex. Good enough."

"Ve should let ze Alpha dog know vat happened to zese two," Heinkel remarked as she knelt down beside the chestnut-colored werewolf's head.

Kallenna nodded; "We should carry one of these wolfmen back too– just in case they can get a clear scent off of it. If we leave these here, I get the feeling they won't be here when we get back."

The walk back to the clearing was quiet, the wolves leading the way, Heinkel and Kallenna keeping their eye on the rear, and Anderson in the center with a wolfman corpse (the most intact one they could find) draped over his shoulder like it weighed nothing. The younger regenerator chewed on her bottom lip; as far as reunions go, this one could have gone far better. She wanted to talk, to clear the air and get all the minds around on something more pleasant, but the sick feeling in her stomach wouldn't leave. Her eyes flickered ahead to the wolves in the fog; their ears were up and alert, but their tails still quivered between their legs.

When they reached the clearing, the wolves were waiting for them. The pack had drawn as far back from their position as they could, forming a tight half-circle against the tree line on the other side of the clearing. Hackles were raised and teeth were bared. Kallenna could hear a rumbling– it took her a moment to realize that was nearly _every _member of the werewolf pack growling in unison. The pups had all been scooped into arms or were dangling from the scruffs of their necks in careful jaws. And all of their eyes were focused on Anderson.

Grishild stood atop the rock Kallenna had abandoned, Hans and Rip standing behind her. The Alpha wolf had shifted back to human form, and despite her disarming smile her orange eyes cut straight through the humans. Wisps of fog were being drawn to Hans, swirling around him slowly as his red eyes glowed against the moon. Rip was fiddling with her hair, chewing on the inside of her lower lip, and was looking absolutely anywhere else but at the main event before her.

"So these two dogs sent word ahead," Anderson remarked, breaking the silence at last. The black and the blonde wolf darted to the pack, taking their places in line.

Grishild's smile gained an edge sharp enough to cut; "Indeed, Paladin. Forgive us for keepink our distance– you cast a far bigger shadow zan you know."

Anderson grinned– well, to be more accurate he bared his teeth; "Mind how you speak, Alpha. You sound a tad too much like the Major."

The Alpha's smile fell and her eyes narrowed; "Vell, I cannot be surprised zat you can cut as vell viz speech as you can viz blades."

Anderson chuckled once before he tossed the body of the wolfman into the center of the clearing; "If you're right about She being involved, these things are a bigger problem than all of you. Let's find their den and be done with it."

The Alpha's transformation back to wolf form was fluid and quick, the cracking of her bones as her skeleton reformed one unified _snap_. With an agility her human form had long since lost, Grishild leapt down from the rock and padded over to the wolfman corpse. She paced in circles around the wolfman, sniffing the body and pointedly keeping her nose away from the scorched bayonet wound in the creature's abdomen. After about a minute of this, she turned to Hans.

The captain nodded, then turned his eye to the Iscariots and his voice washed over them; "_It was tricky, but the scent is usable. She'll be able to get a trail off of it, but only if we get to work quickly._"

The Alpha wolf turned towards her pack and let out a bark loud enough to shake the branches. With a chorus of small yelps, barks, and words in Old High German, any member of the pack with a pup in their arms or their jaws darted into the trees, disappearing into the darkness. That left twenty wolves in all standing in the clearing– well, most of them were now pacing around, awaiting the Alpha's next orders with bated breath.

Rip put a hand to her chin and mused, "Vell zat vas vell organized. My old drill sergeant vould be impressed."

The other werewolves crept from their position at the edge of the clearing to the center, and as they did Hans remarked, "_The rest of the pack will be going to the den with us. Twenty wolves should hide our scent on the way and help pick up the slack in battle._"

"Ve should have some of ze wolves lag behind, check around ze clearing for wolfman sentries," Rip murmured, the vampire playing with some of her hair, "If zey send word back zat ve're comink, ve're done for." Grishild nodded before letting out another bark; a few wolves broke away from the pack and disappeared into the trees.

"I've one last thing to ask, before we look for this viper pit," Anderson stated, eyes locking onto the Alpha wolf, "And I'd rather you answered me _yourself_, Dog."

She stared at the paladin for a charged moment, but with another loud _crack_ the wolf shifted back to the little old woman. Despite being a frail-looking, naked old woman who perhaps came up to the behemoth of a man's chest, Grishild stared Anderson down without flinching.

"Ask your question, Paladin," she said.

Anderson's eyes slitted into a glare; "Just give me _one _reason I should believe anything you've said."

Grishild's eyes drifted past Anderson, settling on the moon; "You cannot know how Iscariot shook our world ven you sacked Volterra and made ze Volturi pay for ze sin of Pride. In a few scant weeks you, Hellsink, even Cherev as ill-equipped as zey are took ze Volturi's knowledge and brought Unstet down from a population of zousands to less zan two hundred. And vy did you do it? To show ze Unstet ze price of arrogance, of servink masters stupid enough to devour hordes of innocents three hours away from Iscariot's seat of power."

Her eyes met Anderson's again, orange irises smoldering as a scowl put deep creases in her dark face; "My life is nearly at its end, but I am not your Major, chasink death like a hunter's quarry. And my children have suffered much. After ze first Great War, zey have struggled to stay alive. It is ze same for my brothers and sisters flung far and vide. If I lied to Hellsink, to _you_, doubtless ve vould all be purged. I am not a fool, and I am not heartless. Zat is all I can give you, Paladin. It is up to you to trust or not."

Anderson smirked; "That will have to do. Well then, Dog, what more are we waiting for?"

The Alpha shifted back again and, with a howl, bounded into the trees. The pack, the Iscariots, and Millennium's strays followed on her heels.

**September 6th, England**

Enrico Maxwell arched an eyebrow and remarked, "So how long has… _this _been going on?"

Alucard shrugged as he turned off the water and retrieved the heavy-duty sponge from its specified dish; "Since Walter nearly had an aneurysm trying to do it himself. He was fourteen when this happened, if that puts things into perspective."

Speaking of putting things into perspective, how we got to this moment: Despite his many visits over the past two years and the brief time he'd spent under its roof before, during, and after the Zeppelin Incident, Maxwell had an incredible talent for getting lost in the Hellsing Manor. His search for Integra had lead him all over the estate and finally into the kitchen. For a brief moment he'd puzzled over the room being empty… then he'd seen Alucard depositing an armful of blood-stained wine glasses by the sink as it filled with hot water. Well, it was no wonder the staff had cleared out.

Maxwell had nearly cleared out himself before he'd noticed a few key details– for one, Alucard's hat and glasses were missing, but that wasn't exactly odd. What _was _odd was his duster and suit jacket were _also _missing, leaving him in a waistcoat and dress shirt. Secondly, as Maxwell was thinking, Alucard was removing his gloves and rolling up his sleeves. It clicked then. Alucard was going to wash his own dishes. Knowing that the vampire either chose to or had to do such a mundane chore took the edge off of him, so Maxwell had approached, which brought us to the current situation of Maxwell leaning on the sink while Alucard scrubbed the blood out of the wine glasses.

Iscariot's leader glanced down at Alucard's hands and his other eyebrow shot up; the sigils on the back of his gloves were also on the back of his hands, etched in most likely via alchemical and magical processes. Also, in general the vampire's torso was much leaner than his large coat made it appear, with far less obvious muscle than Maxwell had expected from someone who could shove his arm all the way through a man's chest in the blink of an eye. But then again, the little blonde vampire could lift a gun as tall as she was. Muscles obviously weren't that important for vampires when it came to strength.

"I assume these glasses all belong to you, personally?" Maxwell wondered.

Alucard smiled, the expression understated and almost soft; "They _used _to be a part of the manor's general glassware, but after it was arranged that I'd be doing my own dishes Integra's father _also _made these into my possessions– mostly because he didn't trust my ability to clean up after myself."

Maxwell looked away with a smirk; "I can't imagine why he'd doubt you there."

Alucard shot him a pointed glare; "I'll have you know I've tried to put every building I personally threw during my fight with She back where I found it."

Maxwell's eyebrows shot up again; "You actually remember which ones you threw?"

The vampire's eyes drifted back to the soapy water as he murmured, "I don't get to throw buildings as often as I'd like."

Just as Maxwell opened his mouth to comment, Alucard went completely still. His head snapped up and his eyes shot over to the wall. Maxwell followed his gaze; the archbishop didn't see anything but wall.

"Someone's coming," Alucard said, the sound dark and deep as his mouth stretched into a huge scar of sharp white teeth. Maxwell felt it rumble in his chest and grimaced. The monster was back.

"I see you've already got the message." Orange and purple eyes both darted to the kitchen entrance. Integra stood in the doorway, arms crossed over her chest and a smirk on her face.

She walked into the room as she continued, "I was just coming down to tell you that Seras called me. She's fifteen minutes away and closing in on home. Considering everyone she brought with her, you've probably sensed all the dark energy already–" Integra couldn't finish. With a chuckle, Alucard dissolved into a dark shadow beneath the sink and went racing out of the room, his dishes forgotten.

The knight waited for a moment before her face split into a wolfish grin and she grabbed Maxwell by the sleeve, whispering, "Come on, you need to see this."

Maxwell blinked in surprise, but followed anyway as Integra stalked out of the kitchen and down the hall. The look on her face as she lead him through the mansion– occasionally stopping them and very forcefully shushing Maxwell before he could ask what the Hell she was doing– was pure mischievous glee. For the first time in a while, he was reminded of their thirteen year age difference. They finally ended up at the foyer, where Integra stopped just short of going in and instead peeked around a corner to look out into the room. Maxwell peered around her and all he saw was an empty room.

"Sir Integra, wha–"

Once again, Integra shushed him; "Wait for it."

He rolled his eyes, but he waited for it. And in about thirty seconds, "it" came. A shadow cast by an end table turned a deep, inky black, and Alucard rose up out of it, scowling straight ahead.

Then, he said just loud enough that they could hear, "_What _am I _doing?!_"

Integra stifled a snicker as Alucard began pacing across the foyer, continuing to talk to himself; "Racing out here to wait for _her _like some sort of schoolgirl what is _wrong _with me?! I'm the _Undead King_, I do _not _run to meet my fledgeling like some neglected puppy! … But I shouldn't just wait down on my throne. Maybe I should wait until she's in _her _room and appear in the corner? No no no, that's too much…"

Maxwell had to choke down a snicker of his own as Alucard continued to pace and mutter to himself; "Wait until she's on her _way _there then appear behind her– _shit _I'm forgetting Bernadotte and the others. Bayonetta won't be startled at all, but if I want to mess with the others I'll have to appear here."

Alucard snapped his fingers and a grin crossed his face again; "I've got it! When they come into the foyer and the last one's through the door I'll come out of a shadow behind them! Now what should I say… 'I hardly noticed you were gone, Seras'? No, too on the nose… Got it! 'Back so soon, Seras?' It's _perfect_." With that, Alucard disappeared into another shadow, and Maxwell and Integra were free to collapse into ungraceful snickering.

Integra managed to say through her chuckling, "He does this _all the time_."

"Really?" Maxwell laughed.

Integra nodded; "He tries _so hard _setting up all these situations– You should've seen how much planning went into him showing up at the museum when you and I first met."

The hallway grew incredibly dark and a few degrees colder. A booming voice growled, "You will not speak of this to anyone, but _especially_ not Seras."

Integra smirked on; "We wouldn't dream of it."

Maxwell could hear Alucard muttering something under his breath, but the light faded back up and the temperature returned to normal. Integra and Maxwell shared one last look and one last chuckle before Maxwell quickly turned their conversation to business. That had been the reason he'd been looking for her in the first place, and business affairs were the only excuse they had to be around each other for more than an afternoon. The two of them were deep in discussing a brief update Maxwell had received from Kallenna on the situation in Germany, the reports of werewolf attacks spilling over into Hungary and false vampires in Albania, when the Hellsing Manor's mighty wooden doors swung open.

The knight couldn't stop from smiling as she heard Seras' voice chirp, "Oh! Sir Integra! We're back! But you could see that, I guess."

She turned to the door; Seras stood at the center, a beacon in red against all the figures in black she'd brought home with her and with a smile to match Integra. Pip lazily saluted his employer, grinning around his cigarette, and she gave him a polite nod in return. Her cool eyes surveyed the others– Bayonetta was on Seras' left and had the same smug smirk on her face she'd had when they'd parted company eight years ago. She was surveying the foyer with her arms crossed over her chest, and when the witch's eyes drifted to Integra her smirk stretched into a grin. Integra tried not to grimace, instead looking over to the man on Seras' right; he was a classically Irish-looking man in a priest's garb, though she'd be loathe to neglect the fact that he was carrying his head under his arm. And lurking just behind them all was a Japanese man in a faux fur-rimmed coat with a grin that made Integra feel like she needed to take three showers just glancing at it.

"Well, are you going to invite us guests in or not, Young Mistress?" Bayonetta called, hand moving to her hip and perennial laugh in her voice.

Integra rolled her eyes, but with a sweep of her arm she replied, "Seras, Captain Bernadotte, you're both a sight for sore eyes. As for our guests, let me be the first to welcome you all into my home."

Seras turned and bowed, posing like a maitre d' as the rest of the motley crew filed in through the threshold. When the last of them was through, Seras closed the door behind them before turning and making her way to the center of the foyer with a spring in her step. But _just _as she was reaching the center, her shadow stretched out several yards and faded into a deep black as several orange eyes opened up all over it. The figure everyone expected rose from the darkness (that didn't keep Pip from swearing under his breath and nearly biting his cigarette in half, though).

Alucard's voice was rich and dark as always, with just a slight lilt of amusement; "Back so soon, Seras?"

Seras' face lit up like a Christmas tree and she spun around to beam up at Alucard; "Master!" Integra could see in his eyes just how hard Alucard was trying to hide his disappointment; it seemed the time when Seras could be scared by cheap tricks was quickly coming to an end.

"And there you are," Bayonetta remarked, her smile finally reaching her eyes, "Long time no see, Count."

The Undead King grinned over at the witch; "Now whose fault is that? If I recall, my master only recommended you lie low after the incident, not leave the country entirely."

As Bayonetta shrugged, the elder vampire's eyes caught on the flower behind her ear; "And if I'm not mistaken, isn't rosemary supposed to be a demon _repellant_, Witch?"

"While that's true," the statuesque woman chuckled and adjusted the flower, her eyes softening, "Rosemary also means 'remembrance'. Suits me better than it did when we met."

A laugh spilled from Alucard's lips; "Really now? We'll have to discuss that later."

Bayonetta grinned a wolfish grin; "I can give you one spoiler, Count– I'm older than you."

Integra snapped her fingers, bringing all the attention back to her; "Let's put the banter on hold for the moment. Now…"

She put a hand to her chin; "Bayonetta I know. The two of you–" she gestured to Izaya and Rorain– "will need to introduce yourselves."

Rorain bowed slightly; "Of course. I'm Father Rorain Maloney, it's an honor to meet you in person Sir Hellsing. I've–"

"W-wait wait _wait_," Maxwell cut in, left eye already twitching, "Did you say _Father? _You're not just dressed like this you're– you're _actually _a priest?"

Rorain nodded with his shoulders; "Indeed, Archbishop Maxwell. I'm an ordained priest within the Catholic church."

Maxwell could barely pick up his jaw to speak again; "A-and you're a…"

"Particularly dark-leaning species of faerie, yes," Rorain replied with another exaggerated nod. "I'm as surprised as you are all the bibles I've touched haven't burst into flames." Maxwell just continued staring, eye twitching and jaw on the floor. Nearby, Alucard had lost the battle against laughter and was currently leaning on Seras for support as he cackled, whole body shaking with mirth and bloody tears at the corners of his eyes. Integra stifled a snicker of her own while Bayonetta looked over to Seras and mouthed 'told you so'.

Then Izaya spoke up, and all the laughter in the room died; "Orihara Izaya, a humble necromancer at your service." Integra scowled on reflex. The necromancer's smile was an eerie, almost bland thing. There was no mistaking it for anything other than a mask. If their need wasn't so dire, Integra would have made Alucard redecorate the foyer with the man's brain. Regardless, she'd have a talk with Alucard and Seras about this man when they were in a more secure location.

"But that's not all I can offer you," Izaya remarked, bringing Integra back to the moment, "By trade I'm an information broker. I'd be willing to share any relevant reports I get from my network… provided I'm actually getting paid for helping in this war. Knowledge isn't free, Teggy–" Izaya's smirk only widened as he felt the cold steel of the Cassul touch the back of his head. Alucard's iconic grin was already threatening to break his face in two.

"And I'll have to stop you _right _there," Integra said, producing a cigarillo from her suit casual as you please, "I'm tolerating your use of dark magic because right now our need is dire. I can look the other way towards whatever unsavory connections your network has as long as your information is good. What I absolutely will _not _tolerate is insubordination." Integra lit her cigarillo, took a long drag, and blew a plume of smoke directly into Izaya's face. He didn't flinch.

"I really don't care how high up the food chain you are," the knight continued, "Here, _I'm _at the top. Any trust I have for you runs out the moment our funds run dry. Give me any reason to doubt your loyalty more than I already do and I'll add your name to the list of dangerous creatures of the night Hellsing has put down. Have I made myself clear?"

Izaya's eyes flickered over his shoulder, briefly meeting Alucard's, before he looked back to Integra and replied, "Crystal." Reluctantly, Alucard slid his sidearm back into his coat. Seras bit the inside of her bottom lip, odd eyes slitting into a glare. Maxwell's purple eyes met Integra's, his meaning clear in his gaze– _I hope we don't regret this._

Integra swiftly changed the subject; "Captain Bernadotte, get Father Maloney and Mister Orihara acquainted with the grounds. Bayonetta, Seras, Alucard, with me."

Pip grimaced at the idea of having to spend any extra time with Izaya, but motioned for the two other men to follow him and lead them out of the foyer as Maxwell, Integra, and the three other creatures of darkness started up the stairs towards Integra's office.

Alucard grinned as they made their way towards Integra's office, musing, "Two vampires, a witch, a knight and an archbishop. Shouldn't we be walking into a bar somewhere?"

Bayonetta put a hand to her chin and wondered, "Young Mistress, is that scotch still collecting dust in your office?"

"Seras, I need everything you've learned about Orihara," Integra snapped, blowing smoke out of her nose like a great, blue-eyed dragon.

The draculina gave a curt nod and reported, "His information network is incredibly extensive– He knew who we were and why were coming to him before we even got there. I don't know much about magic, but he's good with it in a fight. The important thing, though… His magical focus is a possessed sword, sharp enough to cut souls. The demon leaves copies of itself in the souls of whoever it cuts, and since Izaya's the demon's host he can control any of the people cut. The demon's name is Saika– or that's at least what Orihara calls it."

Maxwell frowned and he murmured, "I feel like I've heard reports of this sword before."

Alucard gave a too-easy shrug; "I wouldn't start connecting dots too quickly, Papist. Possessed Japanese swords are _everywhere_."

"Hell I _owned _one," Bayonetta commented, "But that doesn't mean we shouldn't look into its history. That sword's cutting and casting power aren't nearly as dangerous as the whole 'turning anyone it cuts into a loyal slave' aspect of it. Tracing its history could give us an idea of how far Orihara's reach really goes."

"No doubt more than half of Orihara's informants consist of these thralls," Maxwell grumbled. He just barely beat Alucard to opening the door to Integra's office for her. She breezed through, acknowledging the chivalry with a ghost of a smile. That brief exchange was enough to make Seras giggle to herself as she strolled into the office. Integra opened her mouth to speak… and then the phone rang. There was no salvaging the receiver after Integra's outburst, but the land line phone worked just fine despite that. Now she just had to answer everything on speaker phone.

Integra hissed through gritted teeth, "I need a secretary."

"Should we go so you can take this?" Seras asked, but Integra just shook her head and answered.

A lightly-accented female voice came through the speakerphone; "Sir Hellsing, this is Staff Sergeant Cohen of Cherev."

Integra's eyebrows arched slightly; "I see. Have you made any breakthroughs concerning the false vampires?"

The Israeli made a small 'errr' noise before she replied, "Well, we know what the substance on the vampires is. It's a drug– they shoot it up and it turns them," she snapped her fingers, "Just like that. It's being distributed like any other drug on the streets, so we're being led in circles chasing down dealers. There are a _lot _more of them in Jerusalem alone than we thought, though most of them are regular drug peddlers who were 'encouraged' to diversify."

Alucard let out a displeased noise; "Yet another method of mass-producing vampires. No wonder these things are about as strong as tissue paper."

"But we did make a break just recently," Ariella continued, "Our people finally broke the drug down. We'd never seen some of these chemical components before, so I sent the information to you."

Integra furrowed her eyebrows and opened up her laptop in the center of her desk. It was short work finding the files they'd sent– Cherev had gone through all the proper secure channels and labeled everything clearly. Everyone crowded around behind Integra, peering around to get a good look at the results.

The knight's eyes went wide; "Oh my God, I know what this is."

"What is it?" Ariella asked.

Integra adjusted her glasses and leaned in closer to the screen as she explained, "This– this is almost _exactly _the chemical composition of the serum Millennium used to make their vampires. We spent _days _recovering enough of it from the dead to get a clean sample, I'd recognize it anywhere. But…" She pointed to one component, "This chemical wasn't in the original serum. We found this in the blood of the pseudo-Unstet. It's what stabilized them, but also weakened them."

"That's probably what makes these false vampires so quick to turn but so weak," Maxwell murmured, rubbing at his mouth in thought.

"Well, the answer to who's making them is right in front of us," Alucard growled.

Integra arched a brow; "It can't be Millennium, you know that. We rooted out the last of their far-flung branches just this year–"

Alucard shook his head and pointed to another chemical component; "_This_. This is She's blood. You can't have forgotten that so soon. Look at how _much _of it there is." Everyone squinted, then their eyes went wide. The ancient vampire's blood was nearly fifty percent of the chemical composition.

"So what the old man's saying," Bayonetta remarked, frowning for the first time since she got here, "Is that the only way to put _this much _blood into all of the product being moved on a regular basis is if whoever's making it has a direct line to the source." Integra was quiet for a straight minute before looking over her shoulder at Alucard. Burning orange and icy blue clashed again, and neither was going to budge.

Alucard broke the silence, looming over Integra and hissing, "She's building an _army_. We can't just wait for Her to drop it on our heads. You _have _to send me out against Her."

"As I recall, the only one here who _has _to do anything is _you_," Integra growled back. "You're constantly running your mouth about how you're nothing but an attack dog on a chain for me to release when I want. So follow my orders and _stay put_."

Alucard let out a frustrated grunt before shouting, "Yes, I'm an _attack dog_, not a guard dog! What use will I be when everything's destroyed around us?! Iscariot's a decent force against Her werewolves but we _can't _trust Sorrel and Valentine!"

"This discussion is over, Servant," Integra snapped. Alucard sputtered for a moment before letting out another almost canine growl and dissolving into a shadow, scrambling out of the room.

"Uh, hey," Ariella piped up from the phone, bringing everyone's attention back to the matter at hand, "Would someone like to explain to me what the Hell you're talking about?"

Integra cleared her throat, then replied, "I'll have to answer that question with a question before I can explain anything– Are Officers Sorrel and Valentine in the room with you?"

The knight could _hear _Ariella's brow arching; "No, they're out looking for the latest dealer of the vampire drug we were lead to. Why does that matter?"

Integra let out a sigh; "It matters because they're the reason you're getting the runaround."

_And the audience lets out a collective sigh of relief as I end it before I can possibly reiterate facts they already know for the millionth time._


End file.
